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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30091086">Only Human</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/fluorophoring/pseuds/fluorophoring'>fluorophoring</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Haikyuu!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Bottom Kozume Kenma, Bottom Kuroo Tetsurou, Cleric Kozume Kenma, Demon Kuroo Tetsurou, Enemies to Lovers, Explicit Sexual Content, Final Haikyuu Quest, Little a plot as a treat, M/M, POV Kozume Kenma</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 21:35:57</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>21,790</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30091086</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/fluorophoring/pseuds/fluorophoring</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>Kuroo’s breathing is laboured in Kenma’s ear. “Is that all you want me for, Good Mage?” He tugs the lobe of Kenma’s ear into his mouth, sucks at the skin of his neck. Kenma’s breath stutters, his head clouding with thoughts of his misguided obsession with Kuroo. He wants – <i>he wants.</i> Kenma’s brain is full of turning cogs, analysing every move and motivation of those around him. The only person he refuses to analyse is himself.</p>
  <p>He kisses Kuroo again. </p>
</blockquote>(OR Final Haikyuu Quest AU that's just an excuse to write kuroken enemies to lovers)
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>38</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>134</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Only Human</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Oh, I absolutely bastardized D&amp;D spells and magical items in this so all my table top rpg friends just let your brain go fuzzy about it. </p>
<p>I hope you enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Kenma left the Southern Nekomata Temple, this wasn’t exactly what he expected his life to entail. He set out to better understand the main teachings of the temple – the interconnectedness of time and action and individuals. With his deity guiding his travels, he has found himself on the outskirts of a kingdom, with a handful of adventurers as his companions.</p>
<p>Kenma likes the people he’s surrounded himself with – the quiet and reflective paladin Aone, the talented and blunt ranger Kageyama, the brave and determined barbarian Hinata. They sit on tree trunks and nearby rocks, interrogating a visitor. Kenma is still too new to the group to truly understand why this man is so shocking a guest.</p>
<p>“Does he know you’re here?” Kageyama asks. He seems to be leading the conversation.</p>
<p>“Oikawa thinks he knows everything.” The man, Iwaizumi, is calm in his replies.</p>
<p>“He usually<em> does</em> know everything, though.” Kageyama <em>tsks</em>. “Annoying.”</p>
<p>Iwaizumi huffs a laugh. “Annoying is right.” He takes a slow, deep breath. “He needs to realise his outbursts have consequences.” Iwaizumi makes eye contact with all of them one by one, as if to ensure they each know he values their opinion. “He is a good king, but his obsession with making Kageyama suffer clouds his judgement.” Kageyama stiffens – Kenma watches Hinata take the smallest step closer to him. Iwaizumi continues, “Until he has stopped focusing his attentions on you, I vow to fight by your side.”</p>
<p>Over the month he’s been with his companions, Kenma has made note of conversations between the three others – offhand remarks about the strange timing of events and odd circumstances. He’s been quietly putting together all he’s seen and heard. “Do you have proof that Oikawa is behind the increased number of orc raids we’ve fought off, or the sabotage of our dealings?”</p>
<p>Iwaizumi shakes his head. “He’s too smart to leave a trail connecting him to the underbelly of the kingdom. I think he wants to drive Kageyama out of the area for good – not kill him.” He looks at Kageyama when he says, “You may not believe me, but Oikawa is not a killer.”</p>
<p>Kenma looks to Hinata. “What’s your opinion?”</p>
<p>“Me?” Hinata jumps.</p>
<p>Kenma nods. “I trust you.”</p>
<p>Hinata rubs his chin, making a grand gesture of it. “I trust Iwaizumi… I think.” With that, their small camp on the outskirts of town grows to include a fourth member.</p>
<p>⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷</p>
<p>Their work often brings them to nearby towns and villages. Kenma did not anticipate that becoming an adventurer would result in so much travel. He sighs at the monotony of it. At least today they are walking along the waterside. Kenma likes the days they travel along the river. Maybe it’s because Kageyama and Hinata are less likely to argue about directions and shortcuts. Maybe it’s because Aone is decent with a fishing rod, so they’re always guaranteed a good meal.</p>
<p>Kenma thinks it’s mostly because he knows he won’t get lost when he takes the hours after dinner to go and be by himself.  Solitude is not easily found when adventuring with a group, and for Kenma that’s a challenge. Now, a few months into his time with the others, he still hasn’t fully adjusted to their near-constant stream of noise and companionship.</p>
<p>He walks further into the forest, away from the sound of the moving water, but still close enough to keep himself oriented. He breathes in the deep, earthy smell of moss and growth surrounding him. He closes his eyes to enjoy the quiet, the sounds of birds in trees, and the woodland creatures rushing around the underbrush keeping him company.</p>
<p>He sits, opening his bag to pull out a set of game dice to occupy himself. He’s practiced several sleight-of-hand tricks with them when he hears a crash from the nearby shrubs. Looking up, he sees that a man has fallen over; his body lays prone on the ground, unmoving.</p>
<p>Kenma stands quickly, moving closer. “Hello?” Kenma is of two minds in this moment– his first thought is that he is alone, without the fighters of his party, and therefore should be cautious. Second, he has trained as, and chooses to be, a mage of light, focusing on healing those around him through the power granted to him by Nekomata.</p>
<p>He edges near, places a hand on the man’s shoulder, pushes him onto his back. There are cuts all over the exposed skin that he can see, blood on the clothing covering the skin that he can’t. Kenma’s brow furrows; he concentrates on words of magic as he sends healing energy through the body in his hands.</p>
<p>Casting magic on another being can be an overwhelming experience. Every living thing has access to an inner pool of magic. Spellcasters, through a myriad of methods, have found a way to bring the waves of magic closer to the surface, so that they are able to dip their fingers in and borrow some to bend to their wills.</p>
<p>As Kenma heals this man’s wounds, the waters of Kenma’s magic touch tangentially to the source of life of the man in his hands. Kenma has been told that his own magic can feel cold – almost numbing. The core his magic connects with is anything but. The intensity that flows backward through their connection leaves Kenma gasping.</p>
<p>Kenma has never experienced a reaction like this to one of his spells. He wonders if this man’s magical core is just that strong, or if there is something different about the interaction, a compatibility between them.</p>
<p>The man wheezes as he comes to, lurches and coughs in Kenma’s arms. Kenma moves back then, far enough away that he can reach his staff in case this was a mistake. The man is leaning over his own legs, head hung low. He pushes his hood from his head, revealing two horns.</p>
<p>He huffs a laugh, seemingly in disbelief, and takes stock of his injuries. When he speaks, his voice is rough, deep. “Thank you, Good Mage.” He smiles at Kenma, the white of his sharp teeth tarnished by blood in his mouth. He stands on shaky legs, and Kenma sees for the first time the height and breadth of the man before him.</p>
<p>Kenma tightens his hand around his staff. “You’re welcome.” His words are clipped.</p>
<p>The man stumbles toward Kenma. “Do you have water, by any chance?”</p>
<p>Kenma nods. He moves to his bag, pulls out a cup, easily conjuring water to fill it. “Here.” The man takes it and drinks greedily, water falling from the sides of his mouth. He holds the cup out again, and Kenma fills it twice more before he’s quenched.  The man then goes to sit against a tree, far enough from Kenma that Kenma feels his muscles relax.</p>
<p>The man must notice this. He laughs again, or tries to. “Don’t worry. I’m not here to hurt you.” He leans his head back against the bark of the tree behind him. “If I tried right now, you’d have the advantage anyway. Not much sense in that.”</p>
<p>Kenma sits too, leaning beside his bag. “Who are you?”</p>
<p>The man opens his eyes to give a heavy-lidded stare to Kenma. “Kuroo. Tetsurou.” When Kenma doesn’t respond immediately with his own name, Kuroo scoffs. “I guess I’ll just keep calling you Good Mage, then.”</p>
<p>“What happened?”</p>
<p>“Let’s say… bad luck.” Kuroo’s voice is bitter, angry. Kenma feels himself tense at the power behind it.</p>
<p>“Is whoever did this following you?” Kenma hasn’t let go of his staff. “Are you safe?”</p>
<p>“No one’s following me.” Kuroo’s breathing has slowed. “I think they assume I’ve died. So, I suppose I’m as safe as I will be.”</p>
<p>“It’s late. If you come with me, I can heal you more fully in the morning.”</p>
<p>Kuroo’s staring at him again. “You really are a good mage.”</p>
<p>Kenma blushes. “It’s not anything special. Any one in my order would do the same.”</p>
<p>“I can assure you they wouldn’t.”</p>
<p>“Well, I would,” Kenma counters, as he rolls his eyes. “Are you going to follow me or not?”</p>
<p>Kuroo is quiet for a long moment before standing and walking toward Kenma. He’s as close as he’s been to Kenma since consciousness, his long torso leaning up and over Kenma’s smaller frame. Kenma feels lightheaded at the nearness of Kuroo – it is not an unwelcome feeling.</p>
<p>Before Kuroo can answer, Iwaizumi cuts through the brush with long sword strokes. “Kenma?” he calls. Kenma looks quickly at the setting sun, then at Iwaizumi. More time must have passed than he realised. When Iwaizumi makes it to them, he quickly takes a stance of battle. “Get behind me,” he instructs Kenma, sword up and ready to strike.</p>
<p>“Hello, Iwaizumi,” Kuroo calls happily at him. Kuroo makes what is probably a wise decision, and takes several steps away from Kenma.</p>
<p>“Kuroo.” Iwaizumi infuses no affection into the name. “How is Oikawa?”</p>
<p>“I’ve been away for a few weeks, actually.” Kuroo tilts his head, narrows his eyes. “I was hoping you would have seen him more recently.” He lets out an exaggerated sigh. “You really should visit. He’s always cranky when he hasn’t been fucked properly.”</p>
<p>Iwaizumi growls, and Kenma interrupts the tension before more of Kuroo’s blood can be shed today. “You work for Oikawa?”</p>
<p>Kuroo focuses his attention back on Kenma, and smirks – the smile crawls along Kenma’s skin. “Thank you for your help today, Kenma.” Kenma tenses at the sound of his name in Kuroo’s mouth. Kuroo turns, walking back through the forest behind him. He holds up a hand to bid them goodbye. “I’m sure I’ll see you both again.”</p>
<p>“Fucking <em>bastard</em>,” Iwaizumi mumbles, before grabbing Kenma’s bag and leading him back to their camp.</p>
<p>⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷</p>
<p>Hinata bounces along next to Kenma as they walk into town. “You’re sure you don’t want me to come along?” he asks Kenma.</p>
<p>“I should be fine.”</p>
<p>“You’re new to the town, though!” Hinata reasons. “I know lots of people. I could show you around.”</p>
<p>Kenma is sure Hinata is telling the truth. In their time together, he’s noticed the kind of aura Hinata gives off – the way others flock to its brightness. Kenma enjoys his new friend very much, but the idea of walking into a new town with that kind of beacon at his side causes him more anxiety than comfort.</p>
<p>“Thank you, but that’s okay,” Kenma assures. “Kageyama asked you to check in with the blacksmith anyway.”</p>
<p>“Fine,” Hinata huffs. “Kageyama’s lucky I’m so nice.”</p>
<p>“Pick up some bread for dinner, too.” Kenma hands over extra gold for the meal. “Iwaizumi said Daichi’s husband is a baker.”</p>
<p>“He is!” Hinata is once again happy. Kenma smiles at the easy movement of his moods. “Suga makes the best bread.” Hinata counts the coins in his palm. “If I have enough, I’ll buy you some dessert buns. They’re delicious!”</p>
<p>“Sounds good.” Kenma smiles and waves goodbye.</p>
<p>Kenma walks through town, letting his eyes drift from storefront to storefront, as he hunts for his spell components. He walks into a small potions shop and riffles through the shelves, browsing the collected items. It’s interesting, being surrounded by non-magical folk, after spending his entire life with spell casters. Kenma is used to relying on others to remember to refill their casting stores. He looks to the pack over his shoulder, hoping he has enough gold to cover his costs.</p>
<p>He makes his purchase and looks down at the copper and silver he receives in change. He supposes spell components rank above other goods, but he’s not happy about it. He frowns as he heads to the next shop.</p>
<p>Walking inside, he takes in the clean floral smell of the space. He looks through tables, picking up soaps and perfumes he thinks he can afford. He wishes he’d been paying better attention to his surroundings, because as his hands hover over <em>personal</em> oils, Kuroo Tetsurou comes up behind him.</p>
<p>“Good Mage, what a surprise to see you here.”</p>
<p> “Hello, Kuroo.”</p>
<p>Kuroo stands on the opposite site of the table, making sure to be in Kenma’s eyeline. Kenma rolls his eyes at the way Kuroo is smiling at him. “What are you buying here?” Kuroo lifts a vial next to the one currently under Kenma’s hand and examines it.</p>
<p>“Spell components,” Kenma responds easily.</p>
<p>“Now, Good Mage.” Kuroo is annoyingly amused by Kenma’s response. “Your little fighter friends might accept that answer.” He places the bottle back down on the table. “But you’re not the only magic wielder in this conversation.” Kenma glares – Kuroo’s voice is playful, like they’re both in on the joke at Kenma’s expense.</p>
<p>Kuroo’s fingers skip over the tops of other bottles on the table. He plucks one toward the back. “This one’s nicer.” He tosses it in the air. On instinct, Kenma catches it before it falls and shatters. Kuroo walks away before Kenma can retort.  At the door, Kuroo stops to say one last thing. “Enjoy, Good Mage. Be sure to think of me.” Kenma has the urge to throw the vial at the back of Kuroo’s head. <em>Obnoxious</em>.</p>
<p>⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷</p>
<p>He’s been given dinner duty today – going out to find food while the others set up camp. He huffs as he launches a flame cantrip just shy of a rabbit, who dashes into the underbrush of the forest. He understands why he isn’t the one to stay back and put together their lodgings – that’s a task that requires more brute strength than Kenma has – but why does he have to try and find food? Kageyama is out in the forest as well; Kenma’s sure that by now his bow has easily struck enough food for them.</p>
<p>He sits by a tree and pulls out a deck of cards to entertain himself. He’ll wait an hour or so, play a few games by himself under the forest’s canopy, then head back to the camp. The others will tease him for his lack of hunt, or feel pity for him and assure him it’s okay and that they’re thankful he tried. Maybe he should feel guilty about his duplicitous behaviour. He flips a few more cards down. Everyone will be fed though, so it shouldn’t matter.</p>
<p>“Hello, Good Mage,” he hears from behind a tree. He looks around to try and locate the sound – a voice that he is becoming more and more familiar with. Every time Kenma tries to find time alone, Kuroo seems to show up. <em>Annoying</em>. He pulls his staff closer, tightens his fingers around it.</p>
<p>“You know Kuroo, it’s considered cowardly to hide,” he calls out, eyes still scanning from tree to tree.</p>
<p>Kuroo walks, no, <em>saunters</em>, out from Kenma’s right. Kenma scowls. Kuroo squats down in front of him, the bend of his knees and curve of his back bringing them eye to eye. “Are you sure it’s smart to be out in the forest all alone?” Kuroo’s eyes are entirely too amused, too comfortable, in Kenma’s opinion. “There are bad men in the woods.”</p>
<p>Kenma holds his staff, swipes it quickly along the ground under Kuroo’s feet. Kuroo trips and falls, his back hitting the ground with an <em>oof</em>. Kenma goes back to his game. “I find men easy to deal with.”</p>
<p>Kuroo laughs from his spot on the ground. He gets comfortable, pushing himself up onto an elbow. “Do you <em>deal with </em>men often, Good Mage?” Kenma’s eyes narrow at him. He <em>tsks </em>as he feels heat climb up his neck to his cheeks. The only word for Kuroo in this moment is lecherous. He smiles, the entirety of his sharp teeth on display. “Would you deal with me the same way?”</p>
<p>Kenma’s heartrate speeds up. There’s something about Kuroo, some tingling desire to get closer to him, to consume him or be consumed, or just burn together until neither of them is left. He grinds his teeth together, flips over another card in defiance to his own thoughts.</p>
<p>Kuroo lies back, his hands cushioning him behind his head. “You’re no fun today.”</p>
<p>“Am I fun other days?”</p>
<p>Kuroo hums in the affirmative. “Very much.” His feet are swaying back and forth to some unheard melody. “It’s cute when you get so worked up – some days I think you might even kiss me.”</p>
<p>“I think you’re confusing reality with your dreams,” Kenma quickly replies. He’s thankful at least, that Kuroo is no longer looking at him. Really, how has Kenma let it get to this – a demon thinking that Kenma wants to <em>kiss him</em>? And the horrible fact is that he’s not even wrong.</p>
<p>Kuroo sits then, legs spread wide and bent at the knee, an inviting seat created in the space of his lap. “Oh, in my dreams we do more than kiss.”</p>
<p>Kenma swallows, his cock showing distinct interest. He begins looking around, trying his best to find an exit to this encounter. He grabs his staff slowly, moving his hand up and down the length of it as he speaks, hoping to distract Kuroo. “And what is it – that we do in your dreams?”</p>
<p>Kuroo looks surprised for a moment, a long quiet stretching between them as he’s caught off-guard.  As he so often does, Kuroo pushes forward with arrogance. “Would you like me to draw you a diagram? Or I could give you a demonstration.”</p>
<p>“Stop stalling,” Kenma admonishes. “Can’t you use your words? Are you too shy to say it?” Kuroo’s face is starting to colour and Kenma is dismayed to discover how pretty Kuroo looks with pink cheeks. </p>
<p>Kuroo’s eyes dart around as he formulates words. Which is when Kenma moves his staff, speaking words quicklym as grasping vines come and grab Kuroo by the wrists, the ankles, pulling at Kuroo’s body until Kuroo is stretched tight. His arms are above him, tied together in place, his ankles leave his legs spread so Kenma can stand between them, looking down.</p>
<p>He uses his staff to lift Kuroo’s chin. “Maybe you’re right. I should have more fun.” Kenma smiles at him, slow and dangerous. His eyes trail along Kuroo’s frame, noticing a swelling at Kuroo’s groin. “Are you getting hard from being tied up?” Kenma’s blood pounds through his ears. He nudges the end of his staff along the outline of Kuroo’s cock.</p>
<p>Kuroo’s chest heaves as a low groan is pulled from his throat. “Am I hard at the idea of a handsome man tying me up and having his way with me?” Kuroo’s laugh is shallow. “I can hardly be blamed for that.”</p>
<p>Kenma’s fingers tense around his staff. Why is Kuroo always charming, quick, relaxed in Kenma’s presence? Even with Kuroo wound tight and kept in place by Kenma’s magic, there’s an ease to him. Kenma wants desperately to unravel him – for Kuroo, just once, to be the one left feeling shaken.</p>
<p>Kenma catches himself, catches the way his eyes are trained to a spot on Kuroo’s throat – the blood pumping through thin arteries so visible in his tied-up state. He wants to see it, wants to see Kuroo tied up and needy and begging Kenma for release. What is it about Kuroo that makes him so irrational? He walks away, waves his staff, dropping the spell – Kuroo’s limbs relax into place. “Go,” Kenma calls.</p>
<p>Kuroo doesn’t move, lets his body stay presented to Kenma like a terrible, wonderful dream. “I didn’t need to be tied up. You can still have me like this.”</p>
<p>“What if I don’t want you like this? What if I don’t want you at all?”</p>
<p>“I don’t think that’s true, or you would have already walked away.”</p>
<p>Kenma stares at him, annoyed by his observation, annoyed by its correctness. Kuroo turns his head to the side, making eye contact with Kenma. The taut nerves of Kenma’s composure snap. “Do you ever shut up?” Kuroo is silent in response, and Kenma almost wishes he wasn’t. Wishes that Kuroo’s endless chatter could fill the space and distract him. Instead, he’s left with a quiet that leaves him alone to think. To think and make very poor choices.</p>
<p>“Fine.” He turns to his bag sitting at the side of the tree – puts away his deck of cards, pulls out a vial of oil. Kuroo is still laying there when he returns. Kenma thinks he may not have moved a single muscle. He pushes Kuroo’s thighs together, throws one of his own legs over to straddle Kuroo’s hips. “Don’t touch me.” Kenma’s words are curt, his voice strained. </p>
<p>Kenma sits up on his knees. He pours a generous amount of oil on his fingers before reaching behind himself and rubbing against his hole. He keeps his breathing even, does his best to stay quiet, pushing the first finger into himself.</p>
<p>Kuroo below him lets out a shaky breath, he’s propped up on his elbows watching Kenma. Kenma flushes at the attention. Kuroo’s voice is dark, quiet. “You said I couldn’t touch, not that I couldn’t watch.” Kenma ignores him, grinding down as he sinks a second finger into himself.  His breath catches in his throat at the stretch.</p>
<p>He can’t help but wonder how it would feel to have Kuroo push his long fingers inside of him. Kuroo’s hands are large and capable. Kenma has seen the power they can wield; knows the strength they would have in battle. Kenma pushes deeper into himself, imagining it’s Kuroo stretching him wide.</p>
<p>“Kenma,” Kuroo growls. “Lift your robe up, let me see you.” Kenma’s mind is already in a place of foggy pleasure, making him give into Kuroo’s request without complaint. Kenma pulls at the fabric of his robe, holds it up with one arm as his other hand continues working himself open. Reddened with blood and shiny with pre-come, Kenma’s cock bobs between them as Kenma moves.  </p>
<p>“You’re perfect,” Kuroo whispers. Kenma undoes the ties of Kuroo’s bottoms, tugs them down until they’re below Kuroo’s cock and balls. He takes his container of oil, pours it on the length of Kuroo’s cock. Kuroo bucks up against his fists as Kenma slides his hands along the length to get Kuroo ready. He’s already shivering below Kenma. Kenma doesn’t know how long either of them will last.</p>
<p>Kenma raises himself again; taking Kuroo’s length in one hand, he positions Kuroo’s cock at his entrance. Kenma doesn’t hesitate as he forces his body down on Kuroo’s cock, wants the sting and burn of it. Kuroo groans, loud and desperate. Kenma puts his oiled hands down on Kuroo’s chest, ruins the fabric with greased finger prints. “Don’t come in me.” He wants his words to sound demanding, but instead they’re stuttered through loosened lips.</p>
<p>Kenma moves himself relentlessly up and down on Kuroo’s cock. Every time he bottoms out a loud slap of skin echoes through the forest. He throws his head back, squeezes his eyes shut, focuses on the feeling of Kuroo filling him to excess, over and over.  Kenma moans on a particularly deep thrust that hits him perfectly, lets his ass stay connected to Kuroo’s groin, small movements of Kenma’s hips fucking Kuroo’s cock against his prostate over and over.</p>
<p>“<em>Fucking Gods, Kenma</em>.” Kuroo sounds frantic. Kenma opens his eyes to a desperate Kuroo, fists clenched at his sides. “Let me touch you. <em>Please </em>let me touch you.”</p>
<p>Kenma is still bouncing, still drawing his own pleasure from Kuroo’s cock. He nods, leaning forward as Kuroo’s hands quickly push under Kenma’s robes, roam along Kenma’s skin. They settle on Kenma’s hips pulling him down harder with each bounce. Kenma pushes a hand between their bodies, tugs uncoordinatedly on his own cock.</p>
<p>Kenma feels it build, feels it curl inside him as he lets Kuroo push him toward the edge. His forehead settles on Kuroo’s shoulder as arousal rushes through him, come landing between them. His body clenches down on Kuroo’s cock, pulsing tight around Kuroo in waves.</p>
<p>“<em>Yes</em>,” Kuroo breathes softly in his ear. Kenma slumps on Kuroo’s body until he hears the low whine of Kuroo’s voice. “Fuck, Kenma, can I?” Kenma’s mind is foggy, confused about what Kuroo wants. Kenma realises Kuroo’s stopped moving at the same time he realises that Kuroo is asking for permission to come.</p>
<p>He leans himself back, moves off of Kuroo’s cock, wincing at his over sensitivity. Kuroo whines, needy and desperate at the loss of contact. Sitting next to Kuroo, Kenma runs a finger through the mess on his shirt before circling a fist around Kuroo’s cock.  “Go on, do it,” Kenma says, before he begins stroking Kuroo with quick, strong movements.</p>
<p>Kenma bites his lip at the sight of Kuroo’s cockhead poking through the circle of his fist on every down stroke – pink and wet and invitingly smooth. Kenma lets his mind fray at the edges, lets himself lower his head and take Kuroo’s cock into his mouth. It doesn’t take long before Kenma feels Kuroo’s cock twitch in his hand, ropes of come shooting from Kuroo’s cock and down Kenma’s throat.</p>
<p>Kenma pulls off, coughing at Kuroo’s sudden release. Kuroo’s chest is heaving as he scrambles up to check on Kenma. “Gods, sorry.”</p>
<p>Kenma waves him off. “It’s fine.” He stands up from Kuroo with weary limbs. Walking to his bag seems exhausting, but he does it. He grabs a handkerchief from his bag, conjures water to clean himself off. He wets the cloth again, bringing it to Kuroo.</p>
<p>Kuroo is sitting up in the grass, his trousers pulled up loosely. Kenma bends to sit near him. “Here.” He offers up the cloth.</p>
<p>Kuroo looks up, confused. “You weren’t that good that I forget how to cast a cleaning spell.”</p>
<p>Kenma rolls his eyes at him, but is pleasantly surprised when Kuroo complies, taking the cloth. He watches Kuroo wipe down his hands, his chest, his softened cock. When Kenma finally looks back at Kuroo’s face, his eyes are already studying Kenma as if he’s something foreign and new.</p>
<p>Kenma clears his throat. “I don’t like using cleaning spells on skin. They feel weird.” His cheeks feel too warm. After all they have done tonight, Kenma telling him this small fact about himself feels the most intimate.</p>
<p>Kuroo’s responding smile is halting. It’s unlike any Kuroo has given him. “It is nicer this way. Thank you.”</p>
<p>Kenma nods once before standing. “Be careful on your way through the forest. Kageyama is still hunting and I doubt he will give you the kind of reception I have.”</p>
<p>Kuroo stands too, righting himself completely. “I wouldn’t want this kind of reception from him.”</p>
<p>“Aren’t I special, then.” Kenma rolls his eyes.</p>
<p>Kuroo stares at him. “I think you may be.” He walks away. “Glad you’re enjoying the oil, Good Mage.” Kuroo waves a hand and opens a portal along the side of a tree, stepping through it and away from him.</p>
<p>Kenma is left staring, wondering. Who exactly is Kuroo? An advisor of King Oikawa, with such powerful magic at his disposal? Something about it all doesn’t feel right. Kenma supposes he must keep an eye on the demon Kuroo. He smiles to himself at the prospect of it, picking up his bag and walking to their campsite. </p>
<p>⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷</p>
<p>Kenma sits on a rock by the fire pit. Iwaizumi is stacking logs against one another. He turns toward Kenma. “Little help?” Kenma raises a hand, casts a small fire ball at the kindling. “Thanks.”</p>
<p>Kageyama and Hinata just came back with their kill, leaving it with Iwaizumi and Kenma to cook for dinner. Kenma is skinning the rabbits with his knife as he speaks. “How long has Kuroo been working with Oikawa?”</p>
<p>Iwaizumi doesn’t look at Kenma while they talk, instead continues chopping large pieces of wood into smaller, more manageable sizes for the fire. “Not long. A couple of years, maybe.” He throws the small pieces into a pile.</p>
<p>Kenma nods, thankful that Iwaizumi never seems interested in poking into others’ affairs. Conversation with Iwaizumi is wonderfully straightforward. “The first time we met – Kuroo and I – he said he hadn’t seen Oikawa for a while. Is that something that happened often?”</p>
<p>“I didn’t really keep track, but it wasn’t unusual if we couldn’t find him for weeks at a time.”</p>
<p>“Did he always come back bloodied?”</p>
<p>Iwaizumi stops chopping, stands up straight, rubs at his chin. “I never noticed.”</p>
<p>“Because Oikawa kept you too busy?” Kenma can’t help but tease, to pull the attention away from the fact that Kenma would notice Kuroo. That Kenma would care to notice Kuroo.</p>
<p>“Watch it, magic boy.” Iwaizumi points at him with the axe, and Kenma shrugs in innocence.</p>
<p>“These are ready to cook.”  </p>
<p>⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷</p>
<p>Kenma stumbles upon Kuroo sitting alone by a fountain in the town’s main square. He freezes, unsure what he should do. His body itches to move forward, to poke at Kuroo until Kuroo responds with something frustrating or obnoxious, just so he can glower at him.</p>
<p>When Kuroo notices him, Kenma’s decision is made for him. “Hello, Good Mage,” Kuroo calls over to him, smiling.</p>
<p>Kenma moves slowly, as if he has no desire to make his way closer to Kuroo. Kenma’s annoyed by the way the sun’s rays hit Kuroo. He looks deceptively beautiful.  “Hello.”</p>
<p>“How are you today?” Kuroo puts down a hand of cards on the stone he is sitting on.</p>
<p>Kenma’s eyes light in spite of himself. “What are you playing?”</p>
<p>Kuroo smiles at him. “Ah, that’s right, you like cards.”</p>
<p>“I like games.” Kenma gets closer, takes in the extravagant nature of Kuroo’s playing cards. The images seem to be hand-drawn, the edges gold-dipped. Kenma is sure they are much more expensive than the deck he owns.</p>
<p>“Do you like them?”</p>
<p>“You’re awfully concerned about things I like.”</p>
<p>“I’m curious.”  Kuroo’s eyeing him. Kenma feels his skin goosepimple at memories of time alone in the night with Kuroo.  Kuroo suddenly sweeps the cards into a pile, and hands them over to Kenma. “Take them. Perhaps we’ll play a game sometime.”</p>
<p>⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷</p>
<p>It’s a mild evening as Kenma watches over his party. It’s odd seeing them like this – quiet, vulnerable. Kenma has seen them take on beholders, topple nests of mind flayers. He’s healed them after battles won and battles where they’ve been forced to retreat. Even though he has held their lives in his hands, balanced on the power of a spell, it’s only during moments of rest that he realises the delicate nature of their existence.</p>
<p>How long does he expect to continue this? Especially as a human. As an adventurer, twenty-five years feels like an accomplishment, thirty feels like a lofty goal. Even with the gift of life and death from his deity, he knows he cannot wield the same magic on himself, knows his own life hangs even more perilously in the balance than theirs. Perhaps it’s why he feels restless tonight. He wonders if it all has to do with Nekomata’s push for Kenma to leave the temple, to find the connection between him and the world.</p>
<p>He walks slowly around the campsite, quietly reciting ritual spells of protection and blessing. He moves then, far enough away that he feels comfortable casting dancing lights without disturbing his friends’ rest. Small motes of light dot the space around him as he leans against a large tree. He places his bag down next to the trunk and breathes deeply, reaches out with the fingertips of his consciousness and feels a familiar creep of darkness at its edges.</p>
<p>His stomach coils in anticipation before he can tell it not to. He thinks of the restlessness in his bones, lets it excuse his feelings, the wave of want that rushes through his veins. There is no way a mage of light would react this way normally. Kuroo emerges a few minutes later from the treeline. His dark cloak covers the long lines of his body, brass fastenings shining in the light of Kenma’s magically made stars.</p>
<p>As is custom for their interactions, Kuroo smirks when he catches Kenma’s eye. He walks directly toward Kenma, no care for the fact that they are on separate sides of an ongoing feud, no care for the fact that within the last few months both have shed blood because of that feud.  Kuroo’s cloak flows behind him, his hips swaying as his steps bring him closer.</p>
<p>“Hello, Good Mage.” Kuroo’s voice caries a promise of corruption, of secret yieldings to Kenma’s darkest thoughts.</p>
<p>“Kuroo.” Kenma’s eyes harden with conviction he’s sure he won’t keep. This is part of it too, he thinks. The resistance is almost as enjoyable as the submission. It is part of the important lie that Kenma tells himself, tells Kuroo. <em>I don’t want you here and I never have</em>. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?”</p>
<p>Kuroo’s eyes light up at the word. “I’m happy that you find pleasure in my company.”</p>
<p>Kenma rolls his eyes. “Are you here to spy or attack?” He holds his staff steady, aiming directly toward Kuroo. “Please choose quickly, so I can finish my watch in peace.”</p>
<p>“If I were here to attack, you’d already be dead, and if I were here to spy, then you’d never have known.”</p>
<p>“Your confidence is both unfounded and unbecoming.” Kenma tilts his head, eyes narrowing.</p>
<p>Kuroo smiles, showing off the sharp points of his teeth. Kenma feels his heart rate pick up, feels his cock start to fatten at the look of hunger on Kuroo’s face.  Kuroo rolls his tongue along one of his canines. He steps close enough to touch. “Although this conversation is enjoyable, if you’re so worried about the time I’m taking from your watch, perhaps we should skip the foreplay.”</p>
<p>“Bastard,” Kenma bites out, before he leans up and kisses him, tongue pushing into Kuroo’s wet mouth, teeth digging into Kuroo’s bottom lip. Kenma’s hands grip either side of Kuroo’s face. Kuroo’s hands come up to grip Kenma’s wrists, holding him so tight that Kenma thinks he might bruise – how fitting for them. An act of affection marked with the dull ache of pain.</p>
<p>Kuroo pulls back and laughs. “What’s it like to want a bastard?”</p>
<p>“I don’t want you,” Kenma says, as he pulls at the ties of Kuroo’s cloak, shoving the heavy fabric off of Kuroo’s shoulders. Kuroo laughs low in Kenma’s ear as he gets Kuroo’s clothing out of the way. He moves to untie the strings of Kuroo’s pants, pulling out Kuroo’s cock, taking the length in his hand. He begins stroking, working it to hardness. “I just want you to fuck me.”</p>
<p>Kuroo’s breathing is laboured in Kenma’s ear. “Is that all you want me for, Good Mage?” He tugs the lobe of Kenma’s ear into his mouth, sucks at the skin of his neck. Kenma’s breath stutters, his head clouding with thoughts of his misguided obsession with Kuroo. He wants – <em>he wants</em>. Kenma’s brain is full of turning cogs, analysing every move and motivation of those around him. The only person he refuses to analyse is himself. He kisses Kuroo again.</p>
<p>“Suck my cock too, then. If you’re so eager to do what I want.” He pushes Kuroo down, enjoys hearing the hard thud of Kuroo’s knees hitting the ground below them.</p>
<p>“As you wish.” Kuroo smiles up at him. He pulls at Kenma’s robe, hiking it higher, and exposing Kenma completely. Kenma bunches the fabric in his arms. His knees already wobble as he spreads his legs for Kuroo.</p>
<p>Kuroo closes his eyes and leans forward, his nose skimming along the crease between Kenma’s thigh and his groin. Kuroo lets a sound of deep pleasure vibrate through his throat as he breathes in Kenma’s scent. He keeps his eyes closed. “<em>Kenma</em>.” There’s another low groan from Kuroo’s throat, his fingers digging into Kenma’s hips. “I’ve been thinking about this.”</p>
<p>Kenma’s chest is heaving, his cock twitching at the attention Kuroo is showing it. “And you say I’m the one who can’t stay away.”</p>
<p>Kuroo’s hand finally circles around Kenma’s cock, slowly stroking him to full hardness. “I know my own weaknesses already. I simply want you to admit that yours align.” Kenma’s hips jerk forward, push into the fist of Kuroo’s hands. “I think I’ll choke on it,” Kuroo announces evenly, as if he’d simply been observing the weather.</p>
<p>He takes Kenma’s cock in his mouth. It’s not delicate or gentle. Kenma swears into the night as Kuroo takes him down in one swallow, all the way to the base, Kuroo’s nose breathing into the hair there.</p>
<p>Kenma squirms, body moving as his hands find purchase in Kuroo’s hair, curl around Kuroo’s horns. He bites on the fabric of his robe to keep it out of the way. His full mouth chokes off the sounds he’s making and challenges his breathing. His head already swims from the sensation of being undone by Kuroo.</p>
<p>He pulls hard on Kuroo’s hair as he feels Kuroo’s throat relax and constrict around him, feels the rhythmic movement of Kuroo swallowing him whole. Kuroo waits there a moment longer before pulling off, long strings of spit falling from his mouth along Kenma’s cock. Kuroo moves his hand up and down a few times, before he goes back to sucking Kenma.</p>
<p>He fucks his throat on Kenma’s cock, Kenma pushing and pulling on Kuroo’s horns as he does. The tight wetness of Kuroo’s throat drags sound after sound from Kenma’s mouth, muffled only by the cloth gag between his teeth. Kenma’s cock is shining wet when Kuroo slides off. When Kuroo speaks, his voice is rough and low from abuse. “How many times can you come tonight?” He squeezes the base of Kenma’s cock; Kenma moans. “If I finish you now, can you come again on my cock?”</p>
<p>Kenma is annoyed at the way his legs shake, at the way he’s sure Kuroo <em>can tell</em> his legs are shaking. With his mouth full, he fucks his hips forward in challenge. He plans on coming down Kuroo’s throat and is sure Kuroo will oblige him.</p>
<p>Kuroo smirks, lets out a guttural growl. He attaches his mouth to the head of Kenma’s cock, hollows his cheeks, and his flattened tongue works the crown. Kuroo moves Kenma’s cockhead against the inside of his cheek, the hard tip pushing against it. Kenma’s hand moves from Kuroo’s hair to feel the stretch and push of his cock inside Kuroo’s mouth. Kenma whines around his mouthful, the fabric soaking with spit.</p>
<p>Kuroo pulls off, his tongue lolling out of his mouth, providing a large surface area for Kenma. Kuroo’s hand works him as Kenma’s cock lays against Kuroo’s tongue gently when he finally comes. Pulse after pulse, loads of come land on Kuroo’s tongue, his lips, across his cheek. Kuroo’s body tenses and shivers at the warmth that streaks across his face. “<em>Yes. Fuck. </em>That’s good.”</p>
<p>Kenma slumps back more fully against the tree, releasing the fabric of his robe. He watches Kuroo slide his fingers through the come on his face, collecting it all, bringing it to his mouth and sucking. “Mmm,” he hums as he licks every drop. He stands, using his height to look down on Kenma. “Do you need a short rest, Good Mage?”</p>
<p>Kenma pulls him down for a bruising kiss. He can taste himself on Kuroo’s tongue and it pulls at a deep feeling of want inside him. Kuroo overwhelming him, Kuroo taking a part of him. It feels like their every interaction leaves Kenma and Kuroo exchanging themselves in pieces, like the transfer of magic between them the first night they met.</p>
<p>Kuroo’s mouth is hot, incessant against Kenma’s. He can’t seem to catch his breath as Kuroo takes and takes from him. Kuroo moves his lips to the column of Kenma’s throat, licking and biting against his skin. Kenma wonders how many marks he’ll have by the end of this.</p>
<p>Kenma tries to cover the tremble of his voice when he speaks. “What now, Kuroo?” His mind feels distant, floaty, like his thoughts are underwater far away somewhere.</p>
<p>Kuroo kisses him once more before he pulls away. He grabs his cape from the ground, moves to lay it along an open spot of soft grass. “Can I use your robe as well?” Kenma squints, trying to understand Kuroo’s motivation but nods anyway, pulling it up and over his head, his thin undershirt the only piece of fabric covering him.</p>
<p>There’s a softness to the action – it doesn’t fit them – isn’t supposed to fit them. Kuroo should have fucked Kenma against a tree, like he has before. He should have let the bark scrape against the skin of Kenma’s back, mark him in angry red patches. Kenma wouldn’t have even healed it, would have let the ache remind him of Kuroo’s presence for the rest of the week.</p>
<p>Kenma frowns at the way the kindness settles in his bones. “Are we going to have sex or have a lovely picnic together?” He picks up his bag, riffling through it until his hand bumps against a glass container of oil.</p>
<p>“Have you heard of patience?” Kuroo’s smile is softer than Kenma wishes it was.</p>
<p>“Have you heard of I’ll fuck myself if you don’t?”</p>
<p>“We can’t have that,” Kuroo finally relents. “Come here.”</p>
<p>Kenma tosses Kuroo the vial of oil. Kuroo easily catches it and places it to the side before he begins removing his clothing. A breeze through the trees blows the loose fabric of Kenma’s undershirt, moving it against Kenma’s upper thighs as he watches Kuroo’s skin appear inch by inch. Kenma wraps the bottom of his own shirt in his fingers pulling it up and over his head. Leaving his shoes at the side of the cape Kuroo laid out for them, Kenma moves across to Kuroo, fully naked.</p>
<p>“Lie down.” Kuroo moves to give space, allowing Kenma to lie down on his stomach. Kenma feels Kuroo’s hands rub up and down the length of Kenma’s back, eventually moving to knead the muscle of Kenma’s backside. A shiver runs down Kenma’s spine at Kuroo’s attention. He moves his head, attempting to make his hair fall over his face, to hide the flush there.</p>
<p>Kenma feels the oil run down his cheeks, into the crease of his ass. His breath catches as he feels the first wet press of a finger against his hole. He waits for the pressure, for the push of Kuroo inside him. Kuroo never does what’s expected of him; instead he holds Kenma’s cheeks open, circles the puckered ring of muscles with a gentle finger.</p>
<p>Kenma wills his voice to stay even. “Are you just going to look? Or are you going to do something?” Kuroo doesn’t make him wait after that – pushing a finger deep and quick into his hole.</p>
<p>“Satisfied?”</p>
<p>“Not nearly, not yet.” His body is still sensitive from his recent orgasm; Kuroo’s intrusion causes waves of heightened sensation to rush through Kenma’s body. </p>
<p>Kuroo chuckles at Kenma’s petulance. “My apologies, Good Mage.” Kenma feels more oil sliding along his skin, pushing into him. Kuroo adds a second finger, fucking Kenma open with practiced ease. It burns in Kenma, the knowledge that they’ve done this enough that his body opens readily to Kuroo’s movements.</p>
<p>Kenma bites his lip, forcing himself not to make noise, not to alert his sleeping party members to Kuroo’s company. He screws his eyes shut when Kuroo starts scissoring his fingers, stretching Kenma, pulling him apart. “<em>Kenma,</em>” Kuroo says, and Kenma’s eyes fly open to meet his. “Can’t I hear you, Kenma?” Kenma watches Kuroo’s unoccupied hand move, his magic casting a barrier of silence around them.</p>
<p>Kenma feels Kuroo’s magic settle over them, lets his mouth open with a shuddered whine. He angles his hips backward, eagerly trying to fuck himself onto Kuroo’s hand, trying to push Kuroo deeper. Kuroo’s slick finger curves inside Kenma, pushing against his prostate. Kuroo growls at Kenma’s response, a possessive sound that makes Kenma’s whole body heat.</p>
<p>Another sound hitches in Kenma’s throat. Kuroo presses incessantly on Kenma’s bundle of nerves. “That’s so much better.”</p>
<p>Kenma whines. “Then fuck me already.” Kuroo pulls on Kenma’s shoulder, turns him around to lay on his back. Kenma rolls his eyes at Kuroo’s sentimentality. At some point Kenma had noticed that Kuroo likes coming while he can see Kenma’s face, can kiss his mouth.</p>
<p>On his back, Kenma can see the hard length of Kuroo’s cock standing between his legs. Kenma reaches out, strokes it with sure movements. His hand slides along the silken skin. “Kuro.” The nickname comes out easily. “Please.”</p>
<p>Kuroo’s voice is a whisper. “Kenma.” He leans down and kisses Kenma. Kenma raises his legs around Kuroo’s sides, pulls him in closer. He feels Kuroo’s cock sit against his hole, slick and ready. The feeling of it makes Kenma’s cock twitch in the space between their stomachs, moving wetness along their skin.</p>
<p>Kuroo moves far enough away that he can still reach between them, positioning the tip of his cock at Kenma’s entrance. Kenma’s chest is heaving. He feels the pressure of Kuroo’s cock against his rim, forcing the tight muscle to let him in, stretching open so Kuroo can fit. A long desperate moan shakes through Kuroo’s body. Kenma can feel it in the place they’re connected.</p>
<p>Kenma is always overwhelmed in the first moments that Kuroo pushes in. His head swims. It feels like every nerve is being turned on, electricity stretching through the entirety of Kenma’s body, waking it up. He can feel every centimetre of it, every place that Kuroo is touching him – the cage of his arms around him, the stretch of his length inside of him, the press of his lips on him. Kenma shivers at the intensity of it.</p>
<p>Kuroo moves slowly inside of him, pulling out almost entirely before pushing back in. Kenma watches Kuroo’s muscles tense and relax as he fucks into him, bouncing Kenma as he moves. Kuroo leans forward, his whole body covering Kenma’s, and whispers in his ear. “Touch yourself.” Kenma’s cock is dripping wet when he circles his fist around it. He bucks up immediately, shifting the angle of Kuroo’s thrust, pulling him deeper. He cries out, low and wrecked against Kuroo’s neck.</p>
<p>Kuroo brackets his hands on either side of Kenma’s body and begins pistoning his hips, fucking his cock into Kenma’s greedy body. All Kenma can do is lay there and take it, sliding his own cock between his hands with each shove.</p>
<p>“That’s it, Kenma,” Kuroo encourages. His hand comes to join Kenma’s on him. Kenma’s back arches, his stomach tenses as load after load lands on their joined hands.  Kuroo groans low as Kenma’s body tenses around his too sensitive cock.</p>
<p>Kuroo pulls out, kneels above Kenma so the tip of his cock is pushing against the mess on Kenma’s stomach with every stroke. Kuroo’s mouth keeps moving, moaning out words of nonsense Kenma isn’t sure he means to say. Kuroo’s hips stutter, stall forward against Kenma’s body, and Kenma feels the warm wetness of Kuroo’s come mix with his own. </p>
<p>Kuroo lays himself down next to Kenma. He reaches around for his own underthings, first cleaning off their hands, Kenma’s stomach. He leans over Kenma, catches his eye as he slowly wipes down Kenma’s thighs, cleaning the oil still dripping from his hole.</p>
<p>Kenma hums in appreciation. “Thank you.” Kuroo watches him with soft eyes, a depth of affection that Kenma only sees at the end of their time together. It’s like Kuroo forgets he’s meant to keep a mask of arrogance up between them. He’s more handsome like this. Kenma catches his own thoughts and blushes. Maybe they both forget themselves. </p>
<p>They lay on their makeshift bed, the warmth of the night covering their sweat-sticky skin. Kenma’s head lays on Kuroo’s chest, his ear listening to the steady <em>thump thump</em> of Kuroo’s heart.  His fingers slowly drag across the soft skin of Kuroo’s abdomen.</p>
<p>“You’re quite agreeable after sex.” Kuroo’s voice is full of amusement.</p>
<p>Kenma frowns at him. “I’m always agreeable, I just don’t like you.”</p>
<p>Kuroo’s laughs. “That’s right. You don’t.”</p>
<p>Kenma doesn’t like the way Kuroo’s words sound hollow. He turns his body, sits up with Kuroo’s arm still wound around his middle. “I’ve always wondered…” He reaches up, strokes along Kuroo’s horns. “Do you feel them?”</p>
<p>Kuroo’s face returns to a soft pleasant expression. “Not along the length of them.” Kenma trails his fingers down to the place where his horns meet his scalp. Kuroo hums. “But the base of them can be very sensitive.”</p>
<p>Kenma keeps his touch light against the seam of them. He studies Kuroo for a moment. Kenma runs his hands through Kuroo’s hair, pushing it away from Kuroo’s face. He reaches to touch Kuroo’s brow, drags his finger along Kuroo’s temple, down his cheek, across his jaw. He looks relaxed, satisfied, and yes, <em>handsome</em> in the moonlight. </p>
<p>He moves back to stroke intentionally along the base of Kuroo’s horns. Kenma smiles. “Like this?”</p>
<p>“Mmm.” The sound vibrates through Kuroo’s body. “Careful Kenma, do not start things you can’t finish.” Kenma likes these moments where Kuroo so easily calls Kenma by his name.</p>
<p>“Can’t finish?” Kenma laughs. “Aren’t you the one who’s, what, two hundred? Older?” He blinks in exaggeration. “An ancient demon taking the innocence of a human.”</p>
<p>Kuroo sits himself up on his elbows. “There was an innocent human here?” He looks around. “Was he watching us?”</p>
<p>Kenma elbows him in the ribs. Kuroo falls back on their bedding. “I’m not as old as you’d expect,” he says without expanding on it. Kenma’s gotten used to gaining information about Kuroo in pieces. He lays back on Kuroo, arm rounding Kuroo’s chest. Kuroo rubs his fingertips up and down Kenma’s spine. Kuroo’s voice is low, he speaks into the crown of Kenma’s hair. “Oikawa is expecting you to return through the southern passage along the river – he’s hired some bandits to intercept you. You should head west instead – follow the hillside. It will take longer but it should be safer.”</p>
<p>Kenma stills. It’s always like this at the end of their time together. Just as Kuroo has noted Kenma’s fondness for conversation after sex, Kenma notices Kuroo’s tendency toward the morose.  Kenma thinks something deeper drives Kuroo here time and time again – to Kenma’s bed, to Kenma’s aid. It seems Kuroo wants to help, but never shares his reasons for it. “Why do you tell me these things?”</p>
<p>Kuroo forces playfulness into his voice. “You’re a bit fun, did you know?”</p>
<p>Kenma hums. “That’s the only reason?”</p>
<p>“I don’t want you to die. Is that enough?”</p>
<p>“If it’s the truth.” Perhaps the glow of their night has worn off. Kenma is left feeling recalcitrant. “If you insist on helping us, then why don’t you join us?”</p>
<p>“It’s not that easy.” Kuroo’s voice is short.</p>
<p>“I never implied it would be. Oikawa is not as strong as he likes to think. There are forces stronger.”</p>
<p>“Exactly,” Kuroo says again, frustratingly opaque. “Oikawa isn’t anyone to be worried about.”</p>
<p>“Then why?”</p>
<p>Kuroo’s hand is gentle as it traces down Kenma’s cheek, lays along his jaw. “There are some things even you cannot think your way out of, my Good Mage.”</p>
<p>⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷</p>
<p>Hinata moves through his steps, practicing sword work while Kenma sits nearby. Every so often Kenma mage hands small rocks and branches toward Hinata, for him to knock out of the air. “Do you think you could teach me how to do that?” Hinata asks.</p>
<p>“Do what? Magic?”</p>
<p>Hinata nods, hitting a stone with the flat of his sword. “Even just little spells.”</p>
<p>Kenma thinks. “It’s not impossible. Depends on where you plan on getting your magic from.”</p>
<p>“What do you mean?”</p>
<p>“Spellcasters come in different forms – warlocks, clerics, druids. They all gain their abilities in different ways.”</p>
<p>“Huh.” Hinata stops practicing, comes to sit next to Kenma. “What kind are you?”</p>
<p>“Cleric.” Kenma conjures water into a cup for Hinata. “My God, Nekomata, grants me access to his magic in return for following his path.”</p>
<p>Hinata nods, takes the cup from Kenma. “What about Oikawa and his men? Do they follow a God too?”</p>
<p>“They might.” Kenma shrugs. “There are a few demon Gods and Goddesses. Though demon Gods are more likely to make pacts with warlocks, than to grant their followers power.”</p>
<p>“What does that mean?”</p>
<p>“A warlock sells their soul for magic.”</p>
<p>“So, Oikawa and Kuroo are soulless?”</p>
<p>Kenma thinks about his time spent with Kuroo – the intensity of their interactions, Kuroo’s exaggerated air of arrogance and aloofness, the unexpected consideration and gentleness in Kuroo’s behaviour. There’s a duality to him that Kenma itches to unearth.  Kenma picks at a nearby rock rooted in the dirt, a sharp edge making a small cut at the tip of his finger. “I don’t know.”</p>
<p>⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷</p>
<p>Kenma walks through the festival streets, enjoying the soft music playing through the air. The city is celebrating the arrival of summer and warmer weather with good food and entertainment. He makes his way from stall to stall, enjoying the ones that let him spend a little coin at a chance to play a game.</p>
<p>After another resounding win, a stall worker passes over a small doll as his prize, and he continues to makes his way idly through the streets. He notices a girl sitting by a stall that must be run by her mother. He leans down, eye level with her.</p>
<p>“Do you like dolls?” he asks, and the girl responds with a smile and a nod.  He continues, “Will you take good care of her for me?” He hands over his most recent prize. She smiles, the warm summer air curling her hair in messy waves, and takes the doll, running away.</p>
<p>That’s when Kenma looks up to see him. He’s not surprised that he finds Kuroo in the shadows of an event like this. He’s not surprised that he finds Kuroo in the shadows, with another body curled close to his. What Kenma is surprised to discover is how much he dislikes the image, how jealousy sits in his bones, tenses his jaw.</p>
<p>With the increasing heat of each day, Kenma’s long hair is more often than not pulled into a bun at the base of his neck, braids keeping difficult fly aways at bay. He wishes he’d left his hair down today, wishes he had the comfort of a mask to cover his face from the world. He feels his cheeks heat as he curses the decision he’s already made, walking to Kuroo’s side.</p>
<p>“Good evening, Kuroo.” Kenma looks up at him, wide eyes blinking in innocence. “Good evening, Kuroo’s friend.”</p>
<p>The man straightens, leans away from Kuroo. “Hello, Kenma.” Kuroo’s voice betrays his annoyance. Kenma feels glad for it.</p>
<p>He doesn’t really have anything else to say, didn’t think past wanting to take Kuroo’s attention away from this man. Kenma slides closer to Kuroo’s companion, puts a hand to his bicep, slides it to his shoulder. If he’s going to do this, he might as well annoy Kuroo as much as possible. “What’s your name?” Kenma asks, head tilted, with just the smallest pout of his lips. “Since Kuroo doesn’t feel like introducing us.”</p>
<p>The man looks suspicious, but he’s blushing. Kenma smiles at the contrasting look of irritation on Kuroo’s face. “Terushima.”</p>
<p>“I’m Kenma.” He feels Kuroo grab onto his bicep, jostling him away.</p>
<p>“Sorry to cut this short, Terushima.” Kuroo starts walking away, pulling Kenma along beside him. “Enjoy your time in our city.” His stride gets longer, gait gets quicker as they make it farther away. Kuroo leans down to whisper in his ear. “Thanks for that back there.”</p>
<p>“What?” Kenma tries to meet Kuroo’s eye, but they’re moving too fast, zipping between festival goers.</p>
<p>Kuroo holds up a small pouch that jingles as he shakes it. “Took a little gift from our visitor friend.” There’s a chorus of sound behind them, people huffing and shouting as they’re being pushed out of the way. Kuroo turns his head to look. “And it seems like he just found out, too.”  His hand moves down to grab Kenma’s. “Hope you’re ready to run, Good Mage.” And he takes off down the street.</p>
<p>Kenma keeps up as best he can, meeting Kuroo’s long strides with 2 of his own. It’s not fair, to be called out of shape when Kenma has to take more steps just to keep up. He huffs, stumbles on uneven ground as the commotion continues behind him.</p>
<p>All the while Kuroo’s hand stays in his. Kenma looks around, sees the little girl who he’d given his doll to. He tugs on Kuroo’s hand. “This way.” The girl is sat inside the hangings of a temporary stall, where swaths of fabric and completed garments adorn the walls, ready to sell. “Hello again.” He quickly glances behind himself. “Can I borrow one of your dresses?”</p>
<p>He hears Kuroo murmur, “Dresses?”</p>
<p>The girl jumps up, taking down a long, beautiful dress from its place. “I think this will look pretty on you,” she says, handing it to him.</p>
<p>“I promise I’ll bring it back.” He pulls Kuroo along with him, behind the tent. He quickly removes his white robes and exchanges them for a deep blue dress. “Is he still following?” he asks Kuroo, voice clipped.</p>
<p>Kuroo’s mouth is open, his eyes wide, as Kenma pulls at the ties in his hair, allowing his long waves to cascade down his back. Kenma runs his fingers through the strands, settling them in place. Kuroo’s teeth click together as he finally closes his mouth. “Last I checked, yeah.”</p>
<p>“Good.” Kenma pushes Kuroo out from their hiding spot, bodies him until Kuroo is trapped between Kenma and the solid stone of a nearby tavern. He pushes on Kuroo’s shoulders. “You’re too <em>long</em>.” He pulls at Kuroo’s hood, hiding his distinctive horns. “Hunch down, you idiot.”</p>
<p>Kuroo finally does. Kenma drapes himself over Kuroo, hastily fitting their mouths together. Kuroo wastes no time in responding, arms curling around Kenma’s body, large hands taking up space on his back. Kenma licks into Kuroo’s mouth, tongue grazing against the sharp points of Kuroo’s teeth.  It feels different – kissing out in the open like this. But that’s the point, to be seen, to hide in plain sight. Kenma sighs, melting against Kuroo’s frame.</p>
<p>He hears the commotion of their pursuers catch up to them. Conversation between Terushima and a friend can be heard, arguing about where Kuroo went and how could they lose him? Kenma eventually pulls back from Kuroo to look over his shoulder in their direction, is happy to see their backs moving farther and farther away.</p>
<p>Kenma looks back to Kuroo, long strands of hair falling into his eyes. Kenma is sure he is flushed down to his chest, exposed thanks to the low cut of the dress. Kuroo’s hand comes up to push the hair out of his face. Kuroo smiles at him before he leans in to give Kenma another soft kiss.</p>
<p>“It’s never a dull night with you,” Kenma says as he moves to lean against the wall next to Kuroo. “You shouldn’t be stealing. I have no idea why I helped you.”</p>
<p>Kuroo bumps his shoulder into Kenma’s. “I do.” Kenma’s face scrunches at the insinuation. Kuroo lets out a small chuckle. “Anyway, he’s a conman. He’s been cheating festival goers all night. If anything, I liberated that gold from a dishonest man.”</p>
<p>“And we all know two wrongs make a right.” Kenma rolls his eyes. He reaches into the pockets of Kuroo’s trousers, lets his fingers graze along Kuroo’s soft cock before he pulls out the pouch there. Kuroo’s breath catches before he shakes his head in amusement. “He may not deserve it, but neither do you,” Kenma says.</p>
<p>Kenma walks back to the tent he’d borrowed the dress from, picking up his robe along the way. “I’d like to buy this,” he tells the woman working. “Here.” He hands over the entire pouch. “I think this should cover it.”</p>
<p>The woman feels the heft in her hand. “This is far too much.” She looks around. “I insist you pick another.”</p>
<p>Kenma’s eyes roam across the garments, as Kuroo finally makes his way back to his side. He leans his head toward Kuroo. “Which do you like?”</p>
<p>“Uh…”</p>
<p>“Very helpful.” Kenma points to a dress made of gauzy, soft fabrics. “That one, please.” He holds his new piece together with his old robe. “Thank you.” He nods to both of them, leaving with Kuroo trailing behind him.</p>
<p>“I’ve noticed far fewer interruptions to our dealings the last few jobs we’ve been hired for.”</p>
<p>“Oh?”</p>
<p>Kenma hums. “Is Oikawa finally bored of provoking us?”</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t give him the benefit of thinking that,” Kuroo says. “I think Iwaizumi’s absence is greatly felt.”</p>
<p>Kenma huffs a laugh. “Oikawa the Great Demon King has a soft heart, who knew?”</p>
<p>“The entire kingdom, I believe.”</p>
<p>“Which of them will fold first, do you think?”</p>
<p>“Neither.” Kuroo seems very sure. “They’re both stubbornly opposed to their own happiness.”</p>
<p>“Not at all like you.”</p>
<p>“Of course not. I’ve been told I give in too easily to the things I want.” Kuroo looks at Kenma directly. “I’m not good at telling myself no.”</p>
<p>“Or telling me no.”</p>
<p>“Or that.” Kuroo laughs.  “Is your party staying in the city tonight?” Kuroo’s voice is like velvet in his ear.</p>
<p>Kenma pulls his hair to one side, so it sits along his shoulder. “At our camp, just outside.”</p>
<p>“If I came to find you later?” Kuroo lets the question hang unfinished.</p>
<p>“That would be fine.” Kenma does his best to keep his face neutral. “Wait until the lights in the others’ tents are out.”</p>
<p>“Of course.”</p>
<p>Kenma turns to him. He leans up toward Kuroo, bringing their faces close, he moves at the last moment so their mouths do not meet. “Later, then.”</p>
<p>⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷</p>
<p>There’s a sound at the tent flap. Kenma calls out, “Come in.” The fabric moves.  Kenma smiles when no one responds. “Did you not know I have true sight? Waste your invisibility spells on someone else.” He looks directly at the hazy outline of Kuroo.</p>
<p>Kuroo appears fully before him – he’s pouting. “You’re no fun.”</p>
<p>“Hmm. I could have sworn you’ve told me I am very fun. Multiple times, actually.”</p>
<p>“Only when you want to be.” Kuroo crosses his arms, annoyance still plain on his face. “And right now, it seems you want to be a brat.”</p>
<p>“I can be fun <em>and </em>a brat.” Kenma’s eyes are light, he smirks as he lays himself along his futon. “Sometimes I’m even more fun <em>when</em> I’m a brat.” When he’d returned from his night out, he’d changed into his soft night clothes. Kuroo laughs, dropping his outer cloak on a chest of Kenma’s things, before coming to Kenma’s side. Kenma reaches out a hand, fingers making small patterns along the fabric of Kuroo’s trousers.</p>
<p>“That’s true,” Kuroo agrees easily. He sits beside Kenma.</p>
<p>Kenma is happy, thinks he’s beginning to accept that Kuroo is the one that makes him happy. “Come, lay down with me.” Kuroo takes off his boots, lies down on the futon. Kenma shifts them so they lay on their sides, his chest flush with Kuroo’s back. “You liked seeing me in that dress, didn’t you?”</p>
<p>Kuroo leans back against him. Kenma’s fingers move through Kuroo’s hair, softly dragging against Kuroo’s horns.  “Yes.”</p>
<p>He moves his hands to Kuroo’s chest, pushing below the fabric of his shirt to drag his nails against Kuroo’s skin. “Would you wear something like that for me if I asked?” Kenma feels Kuroo’s heartbeat pound frantically beneath his palm.</p>
<p>“I’d do anything you asked, Kenma.”</p>
<p>Kuroo’s words buzz in Kenma’s brain. He thrusts his hips forward, pushes his cock against Kuroo’s lower back. “Take off your clothes for me.” Kenma pulls his own night shirt over his head, leaving himself bare. “Lay down, on your stomach.” Kenma leans over Kuroo’s form, lays his lips on Kuroo’s shoulder. “I’m going to kiss you everywhere. I don’t want to miss a single spot.”</p>
<p>Kuroo shivers at Kenma’s words, his promise. Kenma moves down Kuroo’s body, raising each of Kuroo’s legs in turn to bend at the knee, kissing his shins, his calves, the arches of his feet. He reaches the backs of Kuroo’s knees, sucks and bites angry red patches into the meat of his thighs.</p>
<p>Kuroo’s breath hitches as Kenma’s mouth moves to the muscles of Kuroo’s backside. Kenma licks the curve of his cheeks, punctuating with sweet kisses to the skin. He feels Kuroo tremble against his mouth. Kenma spreads Kuroo’s cheeks open; staring at Kuroo’s hole, he feels a rush of arousal fill his veins. “I think I need to kiss you here, too.”</p>
<p>He leans forward, licking a thick stripe along Kuroo’s crease, running across his entrance. Kuroo lets out a strangled <em>Kenma</em> as Kenma does it again and again. Kenma opens his mouth wide, lets spit drip from the tip of his tongue onto Kuroo, making him wet. Kenma follows the wetness, slurping as he pushes the tip of his tongue into the tight curl of his hole. Kuroo’s voice continues his needy pleas; Kenma’s cock twitches at the sound.</p>
<p>Kenma’s mouth covers Kuroo’s hole, sucking at his most intimate place. Kenma feels dizzy with it, the nearness, the openness. He wants to be as close to Kuroo as possible, to lay Kuroo out and demand to be let in. Kenma continues to push his tongue as far into the hot space of Kuroo’s body as it will allow. Over and over, Kuroo begs for more.</p>
<p>“Turn. Like before.” Kenma taps on Kuroo’s hip, coming to lie behind him like they were at the start of the night. Kenma reaches for the oil beside his bedroll. He takes Kuroo’s leg behind the knee, bending it. “Hold,” Kenma tells him, and Kuroo listens, does as he’s told.</p>
<p>Kenma traces a wet finger over Kuroo’s balls, presses against the skin behind them, circles the furl of his hole.  Kenma pushes a finger inside him, pumping a few times quickly before adding another. Kuroo’s breathing comes out in soft pants. Kenma leaves open mouthed kisses against his shoulder blades in response. With a third finger moving in and out of Kuroo, Kuroo groans. “That’s enough. Fuck me now, Kenma.”</p>
<p>Kenma shivers. “As you wish.” Kenma coats himself in oil, lines himself up with Kuroo’s rim and pushes in. It’s wonderfully and overwhelmingly tight, hot – Kuroo’s insides gripping him so fully. Kenma bites down onto the muscle of Kuroo’s shoulder as his entire length is deep inside Kuroo.</p>
<p>Kenma takes hold of Kuroo’s raised leg for leverage. He pulls out, Kuroo’s insides dragging along the length of Kenma’s cock. “Gods, you feel amazing around me,” Kenma slurs. He gives a few shallow thrusts before beginning to rhythmically pound into Kuroo.</p>
<p>Kuroo moans loudly when Kenma picks up the pace. “Fuck yes – <em>fuck me</em>.” Kenma looks over Kuroo’s leg to see Kuroo grip at his cock, pink and throbbing in his hand. The sound of wet slick skin slapping fills the tent as Kenma’s hips meet Kuroo’s ass.</p>
<p>“I want to see it, Kuro.” Kenma’s licking at Kuroo’s skin between breaths. “I want to see you come all over yourself.”</p>
<p>“Kenma.” Kuroo’s pulling faster. “Harder – more.” Kenma grits his teeth, fucking faster into Kuroo’s tightness. He wants to paint him with it, wants to feel his cock spurt and cover Kuroo’s pretty backside with come. Kuroo’s body tightens around him. His voice is desperate. “There – <em>fucking there</em>.”  Kenma makes note of the angle, keeps his thrusts deep and fast to reach that spot. </p>
<p>Kuroo arches back as he comes, clamping down on Kenma’s cock. Kenma’s mouth waters as he watches Kuroo’s cock twitch and spurt come, pumping himself through it. Kenma grips Kuroo’s leg tighter, driving deep again and again as pressure twists in his stomach. He pulls out, empties himself on the swell of Kuroo’s ass cheek, sighing a soft <em>Kuro</em> as he does. </p>
<p>Kenma’s breathing settles. He runs a finger through the come, rubbing it into Kuroo’s skin. Kuroo makes a noise of annoyance that Kenma ignores. He lays back, closing his eyes, tired and satisfied. “Use my shirt to clean us off if you want,” Kenma mumbles, too tired to do it himself. He feels Kuroo wipe him down, feels Kuroo kiss his forehead.   </p>
<p>The night grows late and Kenma walks him to the door. Before he leaves, Kuroo turns to him. He speaks words of magic and crafts a blue flower with small petals. It’s the exact colour of the dress Kenma had worn earlier. Kenma is struck quiet as Kuroo tucks the strands of Kenma’s hair behind his ear, places the flower there. He smiles at him then, like a smitten lover.</p>
<p>Kenma clears his throat. “Am I a barmaid you’re trying to take to bed?”</p>
<p>“I’ve already had you in my bed.”</p>
<p>“It’s my tent, so it counts as my bed.”</p>
<p>“Another night, then.” Kuroo’s hand is still playing in his hair. “You can come to mine.” Kuroo is slower to start his next sentence, hesitant to say whatever it is. “I have to leave for a while.”</p>
<p>Kenma nods. He’d forgotten that this was something Kuroo did. “When will you be back?” Kuroo has been staying in town for much longer stretches than he used to. Kenma has gotten used to having him nearby.  </p>
<p>“A week or two.” Kuroo forces lightness into his voice, the mask of his smirk back in place.  “Ah, don’t tell me you’ll miss me.”</p>
<p>“I never would,” Kenma assures.</p>
<p>Kuroo’s smile is bittersweet. “No, that’s not for us, is it?”</p>
<p>“Will you tell me where you go?” Kenma can only be left to think and guess for so long.</p>
<p>“When I’m back.” Kuroo nods. “When I’m back, I’ll tell you.”</p>
<p>“Goodbye, Kuro.” The small nickname spills from his lips. He goes up on tip toes to place a small kiss on Kuroo’s cheek.</p>
<p>“Goodbye, Kenma.”</p>
<p>⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷</p>
<p>They clink their tankards again, celebrating the job completed and gold earned with a night in town at one of the inns. Hinata is already leaning heavily against Iwaizumi next to him. Kenma is easily the lightest weight drinker in the group, but unlike Kenma, who has learned to pace himself, Hinata has never been one for moderation.</p>
<p>“Another round on me!” Hinata shouts at the barmaid, who stands behind the long wooden bar top.</p>
<p>Kageyama jostles him with a shoulder. “You’re not going to be able to walk to your room.”</p>
<p>“I will!” Hinata huffs. “I could walk there on my hands if I wanted!”</p>
<p>“Yeah, on your hands because you’ll be crawling.”</p>
<p>“That’s not what I meant! A handstand! I could do a handstand!”</p>
<p>It’s amazing, Kenma thinks, how easily Kageyama and Hinata work together, how well they connect and fill in the spaces of each other’s deficiencies.  The thought pushes his mind toward Kuroo. Kuroo, who has been back for days now, but has not sought Kenma out yet.</p>
<p>His hand moves to tug on the necklace hanging around his neck – a sending stone, dangling from a chain. A sentimental gift Kuroo had brought him some visits ago, saying he didn’t like not being able to speak to Kenma between their meetings.</p>
<p>Kenma’s lucky no one in the party is particularly observant with things like accessories, especially magical ones. Kenma thinks he could convince them all that it’s only worn for appearances. He wouldn’t need to tell them that the sister stone is in Kuroo’s ownership.</p>
<p>Kuroo uses it regularly, though only at night – at times when he can be sure Kenma will be alone, won’t have to hide his blush or response from his party. He’ll call to Kenma through the stone, never saying anything of import, simply telling him about his day or asking about Kenma’s. Kenma pretends to be annoyed by Kuroo’s conversation, but never is. The triviality of it all gives Kenma the kind of grounding he’s been missing for most of his life.</p>
<p>The stone warms to the temperature of his palm, and Kenma takes a deep breath. If tonight is a time for celebration, then Kenma will admit there’s only one way he wishes to enjoy himself.</p>
<p>He finishes his drink, smiling along to the conversation around him. “I’m going to head to bed. I’ll cast detection spells on each of your rooms before I sleep.”</p>
<p>Kenma closes the door behind himself, removes his bag to place at the side of the room, takes his outer cloak off. He mumbles mending and cleaning spells at the lot of his belongings. There’s a small mirror in the room, and Kenma conjures some water and takes the time to wash his face, clean his hair, add perfumes to his body.</p>
<p>He slides on a sleep shirt, grabbing his oils before crawling onto the bed. The stone sits heavy on his chest, moving up and down with his breath. He lets one hand move down his body, gently grazing the fabric of his sleepwear. He trails a finger along the length of his cock, sitting softly against his leg.</p>
<p>He bites down on his lip. He wants Kuroo to see him right now, wants Kuroo to watch him like this. He knows Kuroo is capable of the magic, of using divination to see him. He wraps his hand around the stone, thinking of the spell that connects them. He sighs, “<em>Kuro</em>.” His fingers curl around his cock, stroking it leisurely, slowly bringing it to hardness. He wants to draw this out, wants to give Kuroo time to figure it out, to come here and have him.</p>
<p>He hears it inside his mind, Kuroo’s voice, surprised in his response, but always unreasonably eager to please. “Kenma?” The sound tingles through Kenma’s veins, and rushes down his body as he takes himself more securely in hand, tugging on his hardening cock.</p>
<p>He calls up his magic, calls out to Kuroo again. “<em>Look at me,”</em> is all he says. He imagines it – imagines Kuroo excusing himself from a drink at a pub or a strategy meeting with Oikawa – all because Kenma asked him to. And he would, he always does, because for whatever reason Kuroo does what Kenma asks.</p>
<p>He reaches for the oil then, liberally coating his hand, before he strokes with a sure touch. He lets his mouth run, feeling brave in the knowledge that he is here alone in his room, feeling intoxicated in the hope that Kuroo is still listening. His voice is breathy, tight as he whines, hips pushing up into his own hand. “Kuro. Can you see?” The head of his cock makes its way past the tight circle of his fist, red and leaking already. “This is for you.”</p>
<p>The pads of his fingers push along the underside, his thumb circling the tip. Every slide of his hand makes him more desperate for Kuroo to come here to find him. “Want you here.” His head is thrown to the side, hair splayed along the pillow behind him. “<em>Please, Kuro.</em>”  He spreads his legs wider, knees pushing outward. Anchoring his heels to the mattress, he angles his hips up, reaches a finger behind his balls to push against his hole. A frantic moan leaves his voice, cutting off another <em>please</em>.</p>
<p>Kuroo’s answer finally comes – it’s coarse, dark – “Where are you?” Hearing Kuroo’s voice sends another sound of need tumbling from Kenma’s lips. He’s not sure if he can command his magic, if he is present enough for the message to make it out of his mouth and into Kuroo’s mind. He still tries, summons up the will to have Kuroo <em>here</em>, mumbling out the name of their inn.</p>
<p>He can’t wait – already too gone on the thought of Kuroo watching him like this, spread out and so needy. He pushes a second finger inside. It’s not the same – his hands are too small, fingers not long enough. He think’s of Kuroo’s fingers, Kuroo’s knuckles, the stretch of each joint forcing its way into his body.</p>
<p>Another drop of pre-come beads up at Kenma’s tip and he swipes at it greedily. He wants Kuroo’s mouth, Kuroo’s wetness around him. He reaches blindly to the side, pouring more oil on his hands, his cock. It’s frustrating, this want for someone else, this <em>need</em>. Kenma has been told time and again that he isolates himself too much, that he should learn to depend on others. Connect. Then why is it now, why is it with <em>Kuroo</em> of all people that he so desperately feels the need to be near him all the time? <em>Bastard. </em></p>
<p>That’s when he hears it, the knocking. “Kenma.” The voice forces its way through the door, curls at the base of Kenma’s stomach. He must have teleported here, jumped through a tree, or some other nonsense that Kenma knows Kuroo is powerful enough to do.</p>
<p>He stands, his legs shaking as he walks toward the door. Oil drips down his thighs with each step. Kenma opens the door slightly, his eyes adjusting to the light outside his room. “Kuro?” he says, like a question, but means it like a plea.</p>
<p>Kuroo pushes in, quickly slams the door behind himself. He crowds Kenma to the wall by the door, the light behind Kuroo’s body being extinguished until Kenma is covered in his shadow. “Kenma.” A hand comes up to his jaw, thumb stroking his face. “Gods, look at you.”</p>
<p>He pushes his cheek into Kuroo’s hand. “Take me to bed.”</p>
<p>Kuroo lifts him easily, walks him back to the mattress and puts him down. Kuroo sits against the headboard, motions to his lap. “Come here.” Kenma crawls over to sit on Kuroo’s thighs. “Keep going,” Kuroo instructs. Kuroo leans back against the headboard, watching. “You started a show for me, you should finish.”</p>
<p>Kenma nods. He points to the oil. “Give me more.” Kuroo reaches for the vial. Kenma leans forward against Kuroo’s chest; he arches his back, presenting himself for Kuroo. Kuroo pours more oil on Kenma’s skin, rubs it down his cheeks and along his crease. The candle light of the room flickers in Kuroo’s pupils.</p>
<p>“Are you wet enough?”</p>
<p>“For now.” Kenma goes back to touching himself. This time quieter, feeling shier than before. He closes his eyes and concentrates on the sound of Kuroo’s heavy breathing, on the way it hitches every so often. He squeezes tighter at the base, twisting his wrist as he moves up.</p>
<p>Kenma reaches behind himself, shoving two fingers in at the first push, deep sounds coming from both him and Kuroo. Kuroo’s fingers are digging into the skin at Kenma’s waist. It makes Kenma whine, loving the firm feeling of being held in place. “Do you like it?”</p>
<p>Kuroo looks devout – Kenma is high off of it. “I’ve never liked anything more.”</p>
<p>Kenma whines, pushes backwards to take his fingers deeper. “Not enough.” The grip on his cock loosens as he focuses on trying to find his prostate. He looks at Kuroo. “Please.”</p>
<p>Kuroo moves quickly then. “I’ve got you.” Kenma grabs on to Kuroo’s shoulders. Kuroo’s fingers are able to reach deeper, stretch to the place Kenma so desperately wants touched. Kuroo’s other hand takes over on Kenma’s cock.</p>
<p>Kenma feels himself start to come apart at the seams. He sits up higher on his knees, pulling away from Kuroo’s hand. “Wait, don’t wanna come on your hands.” Kenma feels like he’s slurring his words, hoping Kuroo can still understand him. He paws at the ties holding Kuroo’s bottoms up, shaking fingers loosening the strings as best he can.</p>
<p>Kuroo laughs. “Easy, Kenma.” He kisses Kenma on the forehead, and Kenma feels overwhelmed by an intimacy he feels ill equipped to handle.</p>
<p>Kuroo’s hands leave Kenma’s body, undoing his own ties easily. Kenma pulls his bottoms down and out of the way. Kuroo’s already hard. “Did you show up like this?” He rubs along Kuroo’s length.  Kuroo’s breathing is shallow.  Kenma rises on his knees again, moving until Kuroo’s cock lined up with his hole.</p>
<p>Kenma leans forward, kissing Kuroo soundly as he lowers himself. Kuroo’s hands are back on Kenma’s waist, holding Kenma tight as he slowly takes Kuroo’s cock inside himself. Kenma breaks away from Kuroo’s mouth once he bottoms out; his eyes flutter closed as he enjoys the fullness of Kuroo inside him.</p>
<p>Kuroo lets out a low sigh. “Kenma.” Kenma opens his eyes to see Kuroo watching him, a small smile on his face. Kenma rolls his hips, keeping Kuroo deep inside him. Kuroo’s hips fuck up automatically. “Gods, Kenma.” Kenma smiles at the outburst, keeps his movements small, slow, torturous on Kuroo’s cock. Kuroo groans again and Kenma leans forward to swallow it with a kiss.</p>
<p>With his hands braced on the headboard behind Kuroo, Kenma raises himself almost fully off of Kuroo before quickly and forcefully dropping himself back down. He keeps his face close to Kuroo’s, and starts fucking himself up and down on Kuroo’s length.</p>
<p>“Fuck, Kenma,” Kuroo mumbles between kisses. “You’re so fucking good.” Kenma whines at the praise. He’s always getting lost in the sweet things Kuroo says to him during sex.  “Always feel so good.” Kenma’s thighs strain as he continues pumping himself up and down.</p>
<p>He leans his forehead on Kuroo’s shoulder, turns his mouth to the side to suck and bite at Kuroo’s neck. “Kuro.” He knows he’s whining, knows it might count as begging. “Want more.”</p>
<p>“<em>Fuck</em>.” Kuroo anchors his heels now, holds Kenma by the cheeks and begins thrusting up into Kenma’s body.  Kenma arches, head thrown back as he moans at the speed and strength of it.</p>
<p>“<em>Yes</em>.” He drags the word out, dizzy and tingling as Kuroo uses his body. He can’t move his hands to touch himself, doesn’t think he’ll need to with the accuracy with which Kuroo is hitting his prostate. He wants that then, wants to come from Kuroo’s cock alone. “Kuro. More, Kuro.”</p>
<p>Kuroo’s hands pull Kenma wider. Kenma shivers at the feeling of being this exposed. “This good?” Kuroo asks, and Kenma feels him slide a finger along his rim. Kenma wonders if he’ll push it in, spread him even farther. “This enough?”</p>
<p>Kenma nods into Kuroo’s neck as Kuroo’s hips keep moving. Kenma feels like he’ll split apart, like Kuroo is going to pull him in two. The tightness curled at the pit of Kenma’s stomach thunders through his body. He bites down on Kuroo’s neck, feels every muscle tighten as he comes again and again between them.</p>
<p>“Kenma,” Kuroo sighs as Kenma finishes, working Kenma through his orgasm. “You’re so perfect.” He’s sweating – Kenma kisses the wetness from his temple. He moves down, off of Kuroo’s cock and onto his stomach between Kuroo’s legs. He wraps his lips around the head, sucking, his hands working quick, sure strokes along the length. It isn’t long before Kuroo fills his mouth with bitter liquid – Kenma swallows every drop he’s given.</p>
<p>They lay together, boneless and tired, for long moments as they catch their breaths. Kenma’s body feels like static as he comes down, his head slowly clearing from his euphoria. With his eyes closed, Kuroo moves him, lays Kenma on his back – the heat surrounding him suddenly fading. Kenma frowns at the absence until he feels a warm cloth on his skin.</p>
<p>When he opens his eyes, he sees Kuroo sitting beside him, wet cloth in his hand. “I hear it’s more comfortable to wash off with water – more natural.” He smiles at Kenma and it’s soft – it makes Kenma’s heart ache in a way he wishes he was less familiar with. He spreads his legs, lets Kuroo wipe his chest, his thighs, the space in between. Kuroo’s voice is a whisper when he says, “There. All done.”</p>
<p>Kenma smiles at him. “Sorry I called so abruptly.” He knows he must be blushing, but for once he doesn’t care.</p>
<p>Kuroo moves to sit beside Kenma, leaning on the headboard with him. “It’s the first time you’ve done that.”</p>
<p>“Done what?”</p>
<p>“It’s the first time that you were the one to call on me,” Kuroo says simply.</p>
<p>“That can’t be true.” Kenma picks through his brain. He’d noticed that Kuroo often calls him first, but never?</p>
<p>“It is.” Kuroo looks over like he dares Kenma to challenge him. “I liked it.”</p>
<p>Kenma looks away. “Well…” He clears his throat. “Don’t get used to it.”</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Kuroo slowly moves his hand to play with the fabric at Kenma’s thigh. He lets out a small laugh. “I was worried at first.” His eyes are trained on the place where his nails scratch lightly over Kenma’s skin. “I thought you might be in trouble – that that’s why you were calling me.”</p>
<p>“Oh.” Kenma isn’t sure how to feel about Kuroo’s words. “I wasn’t.”</p>
<p>“I’d figured that out fairly quickly.” Kuroo laughs.</p>
<p>Kenma suddenly throws a leg over Kuroo’s thighs to straddle him. He curves in on himself, making his body small as he tucks his head below Kuroo’s chin. So similar to how they were just minutes before, but quieter, calmer.  Kuroo’s arms come to rest around Kenma’s back, fingers locking in place and keeping him close. Kenma closes his eyes as he breathes in the smell of Kuroo. He wonders if this might be it – what Nekomata has always been driving him toward.</p>
<p>“You’re in a good mood,” Kuroo observes.</p>
<p>“I just had sex with the person that I – ” Kenma starts. Kuroo seems to notice the direction of his statement at the same time that Kenma does. With barely a change in cadence he continues, “…<em>Enjoy,</em> and it wasn’t on the grass or a tiny bedroll. Finally.” He recovers quickly from the almost words neither have ever said. “Of course I’m in a good mood.” Kenma reaches up to him, spreads his palms on either side of Kuroo’s face and kisses him.</p>
<p>He’s comfortable like this – held tightly to Kuroo’s body. He thinks he could fall asleep. Light fingertips play at the base of Kenma’s back, sliding under the fabric of his shirt to graze his skin. Kuroo’s voice is like a lullaby in his ear. “Tired now?”</p>
<p>“No,” Kenma responds quickly, mostly to be contrary.</p>
<p>Kuroo laughs. “I told you that when I was back, I’d explain. Do you know much about the abyss?”</p>
<p>Kenma leans back. His brow is still furrowed. “It’s the place where chaos and evil are born.” He settles his palms on Kuroo’s chest, his voice small. “It’s the place where demons are created.”</p>
<p>Kuroo’s smile sits uncomfortably on his face. “Does that bother you?”</p>
<p>“Does what bother me?”</p>
<p>“My nature.” Kuroo’s eyes move to the side. “That that’s what I am.”</p>
<p>Kenma holds Kuroo’s face in his hands. “Kuro.” His eyes implore Kuroo to trust him. “The planes do not dictate the person.”</p>
<p>Kuroo brings his hand up to rub against the back of Kenma’s hand, holds onto his wrist. “Sometimes I’m not so sure.” He’s still forcing the smile onto his face. Kenma can only think of one way to comfort him. He leans forward to kiss Kuroo, telling him through the action that he trusts the goodness of Kuroo’s heart.</p>
<p>“I changed my mind, I don’t want to talk about this,” Kenma decides then. “We have a bed for the night.” He settles himself on the mattress. “We shouldn’t waste it.” It’s selfish, maybe stupid, but Kenma hasn’t yet woken up in Kuroo’s arms. He’d like to do that before he hears whatever is causing Kuroo to be so anxious.</p>
<p>Kuroo looks unsure, but agrees easily. Taking off his day’s attire, he slides easily beside Kenma. Kuroo puts his arm around Kenma’s middle, pulling him in close. The dissonance twists inside of him. Kenma likes knowing things, likes figuring them out. Now though, with this, he’s afraid of what he’ll learn.</p>
<p>⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷</p>
<p>Kenma wakes with his arm slung over Kuroo’s lower back. He leans up, dragging his hand across the expanse of Kuroo’s skin, connects the dots of freckles between his shoulder blades. Kuroo’s face is slack in sleep – Kenma finds himself smiling at the sight. Relaxed, easy, simple. He lies back down, rubbing his face into Kuroo’s side to hide his blush.</p>
<p>Kuroo groans as he wakes up, his voice rough with sleep. “Good morning.” He moves until Kenma has burrowed himself into Kuroo’s embrace. Kuroo chuckles. “Sleep well?”</p>
<p>Kenma hums. “Fine.”</p>
<p>Kuroo rubs his nose against Kenma’s hair. “Just fine. I see, I see.”</p>
<p>“Kuro.”</p>
<p>“Mm?”</p>
<p>“In a week or so, at the end of the month, I was going to make a trip to the ruins of a Nekomata temple. It will be about a day’s ride away. I’ll have to be there overnight.”  Kuroo shifts them until Kenma is forced to meet his eye. Kenma’s face feels too warm. “If you had a horse at your disposal. You could come with me. If you’d like.”</p>
<p>Kuroo’s face breaks into a smile. “I’d like. Very much.” Kuroo bends, kisses Kenma, flipping them so Kenma is below him. Kenma’s breathing shifts.</p>
<p>“Kenma!” Hinata calls from the door, knocking.</p>
<p>“Shit.” Kenma jumps, biting Kuroo’s lip in the process.  He calls out, “One second!” He pushes on Kuroo’s shoulder, whispers out instructions. “Get on the ground – behind the bed.”</p>
<p>As he rushes to the door, he pulls on his robe, turning quickly to see Kuroo’s horns fall below the top of the mattress. He cracks open the door. “What?”</p>
<p>“We’re supposed to get breakfast.” Hinata pouts. “You didn’t forget, did you?” He goes up on tip toes to look into Kenma’s room. “You didn’t spell our rooms last night – were you distracted?”</p>
<p>“I fell asleep right away.” Kenma pushes Hinata back toward the hallway. “I guess I drank more than I realised.”</p>
<p>Hinata squints his eyes at Kenma, taps a finger to the bottom of his chin. “That’s not like you, Kenma. I wonder if there’s anything else?”</p>
<p>Kenma’s face is pulled purposefully expressionless. “Shouyou, just say whatever you mean to imply.”</p>
<p>“I saw Kuroo come into your rooms yesterday,” Hinata says in a rush, a smile pulling at his lips.</p>
<p>Kenma’s heart stops, feels like this small secret thing of his has been found out. “Shouyou, if you could not tell the others – ”</p>
<p>“Of course!” Hinata exclaims, saluting. “The fewer people who know a spy’s identity, the better.” He winks at Kenma.</p>
<p>“Spy?”</p>
<p>“You must be really convincing to get Kuroo to spy on Oikawa for us.”</p>
<p>“Right.”</p>
<p>“I’ll wait downstairs for breakfast.” Hinata is all smiles. “Kuroo shouldn’t leave out the main entrance though, everyone else is already up.”</p>
<p>Kenma nods and closes the door. Kuroo’s horns are peeking up from the side of the bed. “You got caught sneaking in?” He hits Kuroo on the head with a pillow.</p>
<p>Kuroo ducks, cowering behind his hands. “I was distracted! It’s not my fault!”</p>
<p>Kenma rolls his eyes. “I guess.”</p>
<p>“Still want me to come on your trip?” Kuroo’s sat on the ground, like a puppy being kept off the bed as punishment.</p>
<p>“I already invited you, so.” Kenma’s mind freezes on the conversation they’ve been avoiding. Kenma decides to let them have until the end of the month. At the end of the month he’ll listen to whatever it is that Kuroo won’t tell him.</p>
<p>⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷</p>
<p>Iwaizumi tears through the camp. “My sword. Where the fuck did I put it?” He’s shouting to all of them and none of them.</p>
<p>“What’s happening?” Hinata’s the first to ask. Everyone has perked up, stopped their individual activities, and looked in his direction.</p>
<p>Kageyama walks out of his tent carrying Iwaizumi’s sword. “You had me bring it to Daichi to resharpen.”</p>
<p>Iwaizumi marches toward him, anger clear in each step. “You should have given it back immediately.” His voice is harsher than Kenma has ever heard it.</p>
<p>“Iwaizumi,” Kenma calls to him, voice quiet but firm. “What’s happened?”</p>
<p>“Oikawa – the castle.” It’s clear he’s fighting the desire to move, to already be running toward the kingdom’s walls and farther still toward the castle. “People have gotten in, they’re attacking.”</p>
<p>“You don’t always have to go and save him.” Kageyama puts a hand on Iwaizumi’s forearm.</p>
<p>“I won’t let him die,”  Iwaizumi says simply, like it’s obvious he will go when Oikawa needs him.  He shakes his arm from Kageyama’s grasp.</p>
<p>Kenma imagines Kuroo in battle, imagines him hurt. He grabs his staff, his knuckles turning white with how hard he’s gripping it. “I’m coming.”</p>
<p>“You don’t have to. Oikawa won’t – ”</p>
<p>“I’m not going for him,” Kenma interrupts. It feels like a confession. Iwaizumi stares at him for a long moment before nodding. Kenma swallows, turns to the rest of the party. “You have no reason to aid us, no reason especially to help them. We won’t be offended if you stay here.”</p>
<p>“Kenma,” Hinata starts. He looks unsure. It’s an odd expression to see on Hinata’s face.</p>
<p>“Iwaizumi fights for Oikawa, and I…there’s someone there that I would fight for too.” It’s as much as Kenma is willing to explain.</p>
<p>“I’ll fight by your side.” Aone stands, walks to them.</p>
<p>Hinata looks to Kageyama first. When Kageyama nods, still looking at Iwaizumi, Hinata smiles. “We can’t let you go into battle without us!” Hinata shouts. “What would be the fun in that?”</p>
<p>Kenma smiles grimly, waves his staff over the lot of them, making them faster, stronger, blessing them. They call on their horses and ride toward the castle.</p>
<p>⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷</p>
<p>The castle walls are deceptively intact, and for a moment Kenma almost thinks Iwaizumi must have been mistaken. Once inside, the smell of magic hangs in the air – like lightning and ozone, leading them toward the fighting. The sound of metal on stone, of grunts of effort, get louder as they run through corridors, ending up in the banquet hall in the middle of the castle grounds.</p>
<p>Tables are overturned, tapestries are torn in two or caught on fire, walls are missing large chunks of stone. Kenma scans the scene looking for only one person. His feet slide in the mess strewn on the floor – spilled food from a dinner interrupted, blood from the already injured.</p>
<p>Kenma feels his heart rate double. He’s seen blood, he’s seen flesh torn from axes and arrows. These things he knows how to heal. As long as he’s there, as long as he’s not too late. He runs frantically from column to column in the large room, dodging long-ranged attacks. </p>
<p>He tugs on his sending stone, closes his eyes. “Where are you?”</p>
<p>He hears Kuroo answer back almost immediately. “Kenma?”</p>
<p>Kenma grinds his teeth. That doesn’t <em>help</em>. Why is Kuroo always so <em>difficult</em>? His eyes dart from body to body around him when it finally hits him. Everyone here, everyone not wearing Oikawa’s colours, is an abyssal creature, a demon.  Kenma’s breathing quickens. What’s happening?</p>
<p>“Kenma.” He feels a tug on his upper arm, is pulled tight against a body – against Kuroo.</p>
<p>“Thank Gods,” Kenma mumbles. He looks up, and Kuroo is alive, though bloodied. It reminds Kenma of the first night he saw him, when he was so close to death and Kenma healed him.</p>
<p>“Why are you <em>here?</em>” Kuroo shakes Kenma by the shoulders. He seems furious that Kenma would put himself in danger. “You shouldn’t be here. You can’t be here.” He doesn’t look at Kenma, instead he keeps his eyes toward the fighting, as the sounds of battle crash around them.</p>
<p>“I wasn’t going to let you die.”</p>
<p>“Fucking <em>fuck.” </em>Kuroo’s eyes close. “Fine. <em>FINE.</em>” With Kuroo’s hands still on Kenma’s shoulders, Kuroo’s touch begins to burn. Kenma is only frightened for a moment before he realises that Kuroo’s magic is pouring from him, and the strength of it almost hurts.</p>
<p>Kenma realises Kuroo is crying. He reaches up a hand, draws a thumb through the tear track. “Kuro?”</p>
<p>“Kenma!” They jump apart as Iwaizumi carries a limping Oikawa toward them. Oikawa’s head lolls to the side, his eyes are closed, his face is pulled into an expression of pain. Iwaizumi sounds frantic. “Fix him,” he demands. “Please.”</p>
<p>Kuroo lets go of Kenma. “Help him.” He moves back toward the fighting, back toward the blood. Kenma wants to stop him. “I’ll be right back,” Kuroo assures him. “Stay, help him.”</p>
<p>Iwaizumi places Oikawa on the ground and Kenma gets to work. His staff moves over Oikawa’s body, he places a hand to Oikawa’s skin, feels the cool touch of his own magic at the place their two bodies meet. He concentrates on it – mending bones, sewing together flesh.</p>
<p>The trace of dark abyssal magic lingers in Oikawa’s wounds. “We need to bring him to camp.”</p>
<p>Iwaizumi is tense, has a firm hand on Oikawa’s shin, like he wants to make sure Oikawa won’t disappear. </p>
<p>Kenma reaches out to Iwaizumi, tries to make him look away from Oikawa’s body. “I can’t do anything else here. I need my potions, my tinctures.” Kenma squeezes Iwaizumi’s arm. “Iwaizumi. He’s going to be fine. He’ll wake up in the next minute or so, and then you’ll wish he was still unconscious.” Iwaizumi doesn’t even smile.</p>
<p>Kenma stands, ready to go and fight beside Kuroo, when Hinata steps out from the banquet hall. He’s covered in cinders and scrapes but he’s smiling. “I totally took out more of them than you did!” He’s shouting at Kageyama who trails behind him, Aone at his side.</p>
<p>“You definitely didn’t.” Kageyama shoves Hinata’s shoulder. “And even if you did, it’s only because I weakened them first.”</p>
<p>“I weakened them too!”</p>
<p>“But I can attack at a distance, so I hit them first.”</p>
<p>Last through the doors is Kuroo, sweaty and dirtied by the fight but still handsome. Kenma rolls his eyes at himself. “What happened?”</p>
<p>“They got one look at us and ran off scared!” Hinata laughs, swelling in pride.</p>
<p>Kenma looks to Kuroo for the truth. He did something, cast <em>something</em>. Kuroo doesn’t say anything, doesn’t dispute Hinata’s claim. He gives Kenma a small smile. He doesn’t look happy, he looks apologetic.</p>
<p>⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷</p>
<p>The end of the month comes faster than Kenma realises. When he meets Kuroo on horseback a few kilometers outside of town, he notices a number of packs on the horse. “Are you planning on staying the whole season?”</p>
<p>“I like to be comfortable.” Kuroo shrugs.</p>
<p>“Such princely tastes,” Kenma teases. Kuroo doesn’t respond in the way he expects – he smiles softly at Kenma, but nothing more.  They travel mostly in silence. Ordinarily Kenma would appreciate that – quiet time alone. Or, perhaps not ordinarily, but historically. Sometime in the last almost-year, Kenma has found he doesn’t much care for quiet when the alternative is the endless and often inane chatter of Kuroo Tetsurou.</p>
<p>Eventually, Kenma signals his horse to slow. “We should let them rest a bit. Have lunch.”</p>
<p>Kuroo’s eyes fully light up for the first time on their journey. “I brought lunch,” he says happily.</p>
<p>They tie their horses in a shaded area, seeing to that they’re fed and resting well, before finding their own space to eat. Kuroo brings one of his largest packs with him, Kenma notes with suspicion. When they find a big enough area to stretch out, Kuroo opens the pack to place a blanket on the ground, before unloading component after component that makes up their lunch.</p>
<p>“What’s all this?” Kenma is eyeing him in amusement.</p>
<p>“You once mentioned having a lovely picnic together.”</p>
<p>Kenma has absolutely no recollection of this conversation – most of their exchanges have been hushed and rushed in the darkened corners of their lives. It feels like only recently that they’ve allowed their interactions grow and flower into the sun. “It seems you remember a lot.”</p>
<p>Kuroo looks up at him, face full of earnest joy. “What you say is worth remembering.”</p>
<p>Kenma’s cheeks heat, his breath trapped in his throat. He quickly seats himself on the blanket by Kuroo, refusing to acknowledge the shake in his legs as he does. “You must think you’re very charming.”</p>
<p>Kuroo laughs. “Hardly.”</p>
<p>“Good.” Kenma reaches to start picking at the food. “Because you aren’t.”</p>
<p>“Your very pretty blush would disagree.” Kuroo smiles, reaching a finger up to quickly tap on Kenma’s nose. Kenma responds very maturely by sticking out his tongue.</p>
<p>Kenma sits with his knees tucked up against his chest, his toes flex and clench in his shoes. “What’s so worrying, Kuro? What won’t you tell me?”</p>
<p>Kuroo takes a couple of deep, steadying breaths. “Kenma, I have to go.”</p>
<p>“Again?” Kenma asks, not sure what Kuroo’s implying. “Do you mean right now? Or soon?”</p>
<p>“Soon.”</p>
<p>“Okay.” Kenma’s brow is furrowed as he tries to connect Kuroo’s words with the tension he’s holding. “You’ll be back though…right?” Kenma speaks the last word slowly, as he suddenly realises the level of concern he has over the answer.</p>
<p>“Kenma.” Kuroo’s voice is small.</p>
<p>“Why?” Kenma demands quickly. “You have to tell me. Finally. Now. You have to tell me whatever it is you hide.”</p>
<p>Kuroo looks at him with a sad smile. “I’ve been avoiding a duty to my Queen.”</p>
<p>Kenma’s waiting for more. “Your Queen, in the same way that Oikawa is a King?”</p>
<p>“My Queen, my Goddess, my mother,” Kuroo finally explains, and Kenma’s mind catalogues this new information. “Take your pick of title.”</p>
<p>“Hmm.”</p>
<p>“That’s all you have to say?” Kuroo’s eyebrows furrow. “I tell you I’m the son of a demon Goddess of the abyss, and your reaction is <em>hmm</em>?”</p>
<p>“Well, it explains a lot.”</p>
<p>“It does?”</p>
<p>Kenma nods. “Though if you’d like to clarify everything yourself, please do.” Kenma tilts his head. “It doesn’t explain why you have to go, though.”</p>
<p>Kuroo huffs. “I’ve always said you think too much.”</p>
<p>“Maybe.” Kenma has thought the same thing frequently in his life.</p>
<p>“The influence my mother has extends past the abyssal plane. She’s, if not worshipped, feared by followers on all of the material planes.” Kuroo’s posture has become tense, his jaw held tight between words. Kenma is afraid to move. “I’ve been avoiding my ascension to her side for the last few years, my duty to become a God alongside her.”</p>
<p>“Why?”</p>
<p>Kuroo looks surprised by the question. “At first?” He shrugs. “Rebellion, I suppose. I’d fight my way out of her domain just to show I could. As long as I continued to return at regular intervals, that’s all my mother and her advisors saw it as.” Kuroo reaches out a hand, holds onto the bend of Kenma’s ankle.</p>
<p>“And now?” Kenma’s voice is quiet.</p>
<p>“Now there’s you.” Kuroo says simply, and Kenma eyes burn. His statements come out slowly, like he’s worried about every word he’s saying. “I should have warned you…before they came for me…warned you so you’d know to stay away.”</p>
<p>“You wouldn’t have kept me away.”</p>
<p>The corner of Kuroo’s mouth ticks up. “No, you like being difficult.” His eyes are soft in their sadness. “The attack on Oikawa, on his castle, it was my fault. It was a threat against me. They wanted to remind me that they could find me, drag me back, and I can’t stop them.”</p>
<p>“But you did stop them. You cast something that stopped them.”</p>
<p>“All I did was send a message home, a very loud message home, so that she’d hear it and call them off. I told her I’d be back by the end of the month.” Kuroo’s voice breaks at the end of the sentence.</p>
<p>“But now is the end of the month.” Kenma’s mind jumps from solution to problem to solution. He shakes his head, fighting against this reality. “I’ll come with you.”</p>
<p>“You can’t.” Kuroo’s voice is harsh. “She would definitely kill you then. The idea of returning to her for the rest of eternity is only second in revulsion to the idea that she might find you and hurt you.”</p>
<p>“Then we’ll figure something out,” Kenma shouts back, tears finally spilling from his eyes. “Because I do not accept this.”</p>
<p>“Kenma.” Kuroo’s voice is full of pain, of longing and resignation. Kenma reaches for him across their meal, making a mess. He pulls at Kuroo’s shirt, kissing him hard.</p>
<p>Kenma’s mind spins frantically with all the things he wants with Kuroo, all the things he hasn’t yet had. Now the idea of simply making it to thirty as an adventurer doesn’t seem like enough of a future. Kuroo makes him want more. Lazy mornings in his embrace, looks across tables conveying secret words that do not need to be spoken, years of familiarity bringing them mundane safety and comfort.</p>
<p>He pulls away, wipes his cheeks off. “Come on.” He stands. “Pack up. We’ll want to make it to the temple before dusk.”</p>
<p>Kuroo’s movements are slow as he packs. They walk back to their horses in quiet. Kuroo had said he thinks too much, but what is the point of thinking so much if he can’t figure this out?</p>
<p>⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷</p>
<p>Kenma and Kuroo tie their horses close to the forest’s edge before they walk toward the entrance of a dilapidated stone building. Kenma’s eyes trace along the battered carvings on the walls – images of cats, traditionally thought of as Nekomata’s representatives on earth, are broken into barely recognisable pieces.</p>
<p>Despite all this, Kenma feels the presence of his deity immediately. He closes his eyes, lets the feeling of oneness, of <em>connection</em>, moves through his muscles, down to his fingertips. He’s glad Kuroo is here, wants to share this moment with him.</p>
<p>Kenma opens his eyes, expecting to see Kuroo next to him. He turns, spotting Kuroo standing still at the temple’s doorway. He tilts his head. “What are you doing?”</p>
<p>“I think I might just stay over here.” Kuroo’s eyes are darting around, tension in his posture.</p>
<p>Kenma’s brow furrows. He walks over to Kuroo, grabs his sleeve and pulls him into the room. “Stop being an idiot.”</p>
<p>Kuroo has the nerve to look bashful. “Sorry. Just, this kind of feels like meeting your parents.” He rubs at the back of his neck. “Like I should ask for permission to court you.”</p>
<p>Kenma blushes. “<em>Idiot</em>.” Kenma begins walking around from altar to altar, Kuroo now following him.</p>
<p>“What do they all mean?” Kuroo asks, looking at Kenma more than he does at the statues.</p>
<p>Kenma is truly taken by each remnant. The temples he’s used to in the south are much newer buildings. The power, the importance of this place, is palpable. He’s sure Kuroo can feel it too. “Nekomata is a God of connection,” Kenma begins. “Between objects, between events, between people.” His eyes find Kuroo’s. “It’s a faith in the path you follow. That each step taken in that path is important, is valued, brings you to places and people you’re meant to know.” He grabs Kuroo’s hand, intertwines their fingers.</p>
<p>Kenma can see the movement of Kuroo’s chest as he breathes deeply, feels Kuroo’s hand squeeze around his own. “Thank you for bringing me here.”</p>
<p>Kenma nods. They stay in the temple as the sun begins to set, the rays shining through the broken stone walls and windows. Kenma sends a prayer to Nekomata, asking him for guidance.</p>
<p>⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷</p>
<p>“Have I ever told you how much I adore your hair?” Kuroo says, around the campfire they set up well outside the temple.  Kenma’s hands automatically come up to touch his own hair, pushing the strands behind his ears. Kuroo wraps an arm around Kenma’s waist, settles his chin on Kenma’s shoulder. “When it’s pulled tight at the base of your neck, when it’s fanned out against the sheets below me, when I’ve annoyed you so much it comes loose from its plait.”</p>
<p>“You think about my hair often,” Kenma observes, amused.</p>
<p>“I’ve told you before, you’re very distracting.” Kuroo tugs on Kenma’s legs until Kenma is sat sideways, his knees bent to cover Kuroo’s thighs. Kenma leans forward, his head falling onto Kuroo’s chest, and he closes his eyes. There’s so much safety and softness in this moment.</p>
<p>It bubbles up in Kenma then, until he’s unable to control his mouth. “I love you.”</p>
<p>Kenma feels Kuroo tense against him, feels the movement of Kuroo’s chest heaving against his cheek. Kuroo’s voice is quiet, soft. “I love you too.”</p>
<p>Kenma has the euphoric feeling of <em>finally</em> before he notices Kuroo trembling against him. He shifts quickly, turning to take Kuroo’s face in both hands, kissing him soundly on the mouth. “Let’s go to bed.”</p>
<p>Their bed is made from a number of pillows and blankets that Kuroo has brought, their entire tent filled with piles of softness.  Kenma lays down, his bare back on the plush bed below him. Kuroo smiles. “Aren’t you glad of my princely tastes now?”</p>
<p>Kenma smiles back, Kuroo leaning over him. Kenma casts dancing lights and fills the space with a soft warm glow. Kenma traces the muscles of Kuroo’s chest, down to his abdomen. He wants to remember every inch of Kuroo, knows that the number of chances he’ll have to commit Kuroo to memory are small.</p>
<p>Kenma runs his hands through Kuroo’s hair, along Kuroo’s horns. Kuroo hums in pleasure at the touch. “I don’t want to think about you leaving,” Kenma says, frustration filling his voice. “Make me forget.” He connects his lips to Kuroo’s, slides his tongue into Kuroo’s mouth to run it along the sharp points of Kuroo’s teeth.</p>
<p>Kuroo tightens his hand on Kenma’s hip before reaching around to squeeze the curve of Kenma’s backside. Kenma pushes his hips up in response. Kuroo pulls away, looks down the length of Kenma’s body, rubs a gentle finger along the underside of Kenma’s cock, already hard between them.</p>
<p>“<em>Yes</em>,” Kenma sighs softly as Kuroo curls his fist around Kenma, his thumb moving slow circles around his cockhead. Kuroo presses the tip of his thumb into the slit and Kenma whimpers. Kuroo leans down, giving the head a soft kiss before covering Kenma’s length and sucking.</p>
<p>He pulls away too soon and Kenma whines. Kuroo quickly reaches for the oil, liberally coating his fingers. He pushes on the back of Kenma’s thighs, angles Kenma’s ass up for Kuroo to drizzle even more oil there. Kenma keens at the wet slide of Kuroo’s fingers massaging his rim.</p>
<p>Kuroo leans over, sucking a deep red mark into Kenma’s collarbone as he pushes two fingers into Kenma’s body at the first stretch. Kenma groans, drags his nails down Kuroo’s back, painting him in matching red marks. </p>
<p>Kuroo eases him open with quick fingers, scissoring and stretching just to the point of acceptable. Neither Kenma nor Kuroo seem satisfied with waiting today, each desperately wanting the connection between them, burning for it. Kenma pulls loosely at his cock, not wanting to come before Kuroo’s cock is stretching him wide.</p>
<p>Kuroo moves to line himself up, and then Kenma can feel himself slowly open for Kuroo, can feel the tightness of his body relax and give in to the press of Kuroo’s cock inside him.  Kuroo breathes out heavily. “<em>Kenma</em>. You are perfect.” He starts thrusting into Kenma with small, maddening movements.</p>
<p>Kenma wraps his legs around Kuroo’s hips, digs his heels into Kuroo’s back, urging Kuroo to move faster, to fuck him harder. He said he wants to forget, but knows he won’t be able to with Kuroo making love to him like this, with Kuroo treating him like some precious thing.</p>
<p>Kuroo sinks deeper on the next thrust, and Kenma feels it everywhere as Kuroo hits him again and again on the spot that feels the sweetest. He feels it build inside him, sitting heavy at the bottom of his stomach, coiling in him, ready to burst. “<em>Kuro.” </em>Kenma’s voice is a small whimper. He pulls on Kuroo’s shoulders, drags him down to kiss Kuroo messily on the mouth as he comes on his stomach.</p>
<p>Kenma’s body spasms on Kuroo’s length. Kuroo moves as if to pull out, and Kenma tightens his legs again around Kuroo. “Stay inside. I want it in me.” Kenma’s hair sticks to his forehead; he feels exhausted and spent.</p>
<p>“<em>Kenma. I – Kenma.” </em>Kuroo groans low, fucking erratically into Kenma. Kenma holds Kuroo tight until he feels the hot pulse of Kuroo emptying inside him.</p>
<p>They lay together, after they’ve cleaned, settled, and curled around each other to sleep for the night. “At first, I was just curious about you. There wasn’t really more than that.” Kuroo’s voice is rough from the late hour. “Then I started to like you. Then I started to like you too much.”</p>
<p>Kenma’s heart feels heavy – Kuroo’s words are too sweet. “When will you leave?” Kenma hates the wobble in his voice as he asks it.</p>
<p>Kuroo  rubs circles onto Kenma’s hip with his thumb. “Soon. A day or two.”</p>
<p>“I will wait.” Kenma fights against the hoarseness in his throat. “Even if you can’t find a way back to me, and I wait forever. I will wait.” Kuroo holds him tightly the rest of the night.   </p>
<p>⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷</p>
<p>The first month after Kuroo leaves, Oikawa hires their group to help repair the damaged halls and banquet room of the castle. There is rubble to remove, walls to rebuild, work for the stronger members of his party to be useful. Even though Kenma doesn’t lift a single stone, Oikawa pays him a share just the same.  Since Kuroo’s departure, Oikawa seems protective of Kenma, keeps an eye on him, keeps him close. Kuroo stayed at the castle with Oikawa, worked with Oikawa. Perhaps Oikawa misses Kuroo too.</p>
<p>Oikawa tells him he’s keeping Kenma on retainer – that if anyone gets hurt, he’ll be close by to heal them. No one ever needs him. He thinks he’d be useless at it right now anyway, too distracted by the ache in his chest. Kenma sits and watches them work, his hands constantly shuffling the gold-dipped card deck that used to be Kuroo’s.</p>
<p>The second month, Kenma asks to see Kuroo’s rooms. Oikawa leads him there, tells him he hasn’t moved anything since Kuroo left. Kenma stands for long minutes at the door before he’s able to force himself through the doorway. It’s an unimpressive space, clean but bare. Kenma doesn’t know if he’s thankful that there’s so little here to remind him of Kuroo, or devastated that there isn’t more here to tether himself to.</p>
<p>He walks toward the bed, covered in deep red linens, in the middle of the space. A lifetime ago, Kuroo had invited Kenma to this bed, had mentioned it offhandedly. <em>Next time</em>, he’d said.  Kenma’s fingers drag across the soft fabric. It never happened, that next time.</p>
<p>Kenma takes off his robe and his undershirt, pulls down his hair. He moves beneath the sheet with only Kuroo’s sending stone laying against his chest. He’s been too afraid to call Kuroo on it – not sure if it would be worse to not receive a reply, to feel the echo of silence in response, or to hear Kuroo’s voice once again in his mind, and know that’s all it will ever be.   </p>
<p>He closes his eyes and focuses on the connection between the two stones. He can still feel the way his magic meets Kuroo’s through the stone, numbing stillness pressing against molten intensity. It’s the biggest comfort he has – knowing Kuroo still exists, knowing Kuroo still has his own stone sitting against his chest.</p>
<p>Reaching under a pillow, he buries his face in it, so badly hoping it smells like Kuroo. His fingers tighten on the fabric only to feel the crinkle of paper instead. He pulls out a small piece of paper. He hasn’t seen Kuroo’s writing often, but still easily knows this is his. The top is dated, as if it’s a paper from a personal journal.</p>
<p>
  <em>I will miss him so badly it feels like my own heart is being ordered to stay here, while my body must serve in another plane. Is it even possible? To live each day without your heart?</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>If I’m doomed to be heartless for the rest of my life, then I’m glad my heart will stay with him. Maybe it will be able to give him comfort when I’m gone. Maybe my heart will keep beating beside his. </em>
</p>
<p>Kenma closes his eyes, reaches out to the other side of the bed, and cries.</p>
<p>⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷</p>
<p>“Kenma,” Oikawa sings in his ear. “Kenma, I’m bored.”</p>
<p>“I liked it better when you were still feuding with Kageyama.” Kenma tries to ignore him, flips a gold dipped card in front of him. “Go bother Iwaizumi.”</p>
<p>“I would, but Kageyama is teaching him how to use a bow.” Oikawa makes an exaggerated yuck sound. “Who needs to learn such trivial things when we can wield magic?”</p>
<p>“And you’d never want to participate in anything Kageyama is better at than you.”</p>
<p>Oikawa scoffs. “Better than me at what? Shooting a crow from the sky?” Oikawa sends an obnoxious fireball at an undeserving tree. “See? I can hit long range targets just fine, thank you.”</p>
<p>“You’re going to put that out.”</p>
<p>“<em>You’re going to put that out,</em>” Oikawa mimics Kenma’s words with petulance in his voice, as he casts water-based spells at the burning branches.  He appreciates Oikawa’s companionship – appreciates that out of everyone in the kingdom besides him, Oikawa probably knew Kuroo best.</p>
<p>Kenma goes back to the card game in his lap when he hears it, loud and broken in his mind.</p>
<p><em>Kenma. </em>Kuroo’s voice rings out, pained.  The sound, upsetting enough on its own, is embellished by a swift breaking of the link between Kuroo's and Kenma’s magic. Kenma can’t breathe; he closes his eyes and reaches out to try and feel the comforting warmth of the connection. Nothing.</p>
<p>Kenma stands, eyes darting around the greenspace. Kuroo sounded hurt – Kuroo is <em>hurt</em>. Or worse. He runs to his tent, searching for everything Kuroo’s ever gifted him – connections to Kuroo’s person.</p>
<p>“What are you doing? What’s going on?” Oikawa follows him, worry evident on his face. Kenma doesn’t have time to enjoy the absurdity of his one-time enemy showing him concern.</p>
<p>“Kuro,” is all Kenma can say, and Oikawa’s face goes white, stilling in the doorway to Kenma’s tent. Kenma takes the cards Kuroo had gifted him, the stone around his neck, a cloak of Kuroo’s that’s been laid out on his bed, and sets them around himself.</p>
<p>He has to see him. He has to make sure he’s okay. Kenma feels his magic curl around him as he performs his own scrying spell on Kuroo – transports his sight and hearing to the place Kuroo is.  His breathing is heavy, erratic. His hands shake. He thinks he may be crying but doesn’t dwell on it.</p>
<p>He’d denied himself this – looking upon Kuroo – for so long. He knew it wouldn’t do him any good, would cause him more hurt and missing than comfort. Now he worries that the last time he’ll ever see Kuroo will be in pain. </p>
<p>⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷</p>
<p>Kenma feels his consciousness shift planes, and before he opens his eyes, he can feel an overwhelming heat invade his mind, like a bastardization of Kuroo’s magic. The heat of Kuroo’s magic felt like the sun’s rays on his face. This is a suffocating hotness; a panic quickly rises in Kenma’s body.</p>
<p>When Kenma looks around, the first thing his eyes fall upon is what Kenma quickly understands to be Kuroo’s mother – the Queen Goddess of the Abyss.  She sits on a throne. Her skin is covered by thick swaths of fabric that look to be made of liquid – obsidian drips from her arms, cascades along her legs, spreading out in all directions. Her appearance is as suffocating as the sensation of her magic.</p>
<p>Kenma forces himself to look away, finds Kuroo sprawled on the ground just beside a large font in the middle of the room. His skin is bruised, blood drips from the side of his mouth. Kenma notices a large crack along one of his horns. Kuroo’s arm is outstretched, reaching for something. Kenma’s heart drops when he realises Kuroo is reaching for his sending stone. It must have broken from its chain and is now lying just outside his grasp.</p>
<p>Kenma heaves a voiceless scream at the scene before him. <em>Get up! Don’t be dead. </em></p>
<p>Black tendrils raise from the Queen’s dress, and slither forward to pick up Kuroo by the back of his shirt. “My dear. Why are you resisting?” She raises Kuroo above the font. The contents of the basin seem to be the same charmed, oily black liquid that make up the Queen. “You were made from this, Kuroo, made from me. You simply have to come home. Don’t you want to come home, Kuroo?”</p>
<p>Kuroo’s eyes blink open. It’s the first sign that he’s alive. “<em>Kenma.</em>” The word is small in the huge room.</p>
<p>“That’s not your home.” The tendril moves suddenly, forcing Kuroo’s body toward the surface of the liquid. Kenma expects him to splash into the basin, submerge into inky darkness. Instead, Kuroo crashes against it, bouncing as if the font is filled with stone, and not ink. </p>
<p>Kuroo lands again beside the basin once more. The Queen’s voice screeches, “Why won’t you do as you are told?”</p>
<p>Kenma doesn’t know how much time is left on his scry. Why isn’t he strong enough – why doesn’t he know how to physically shift planes, or teleport? What is the <em>point! </em>All he can do is stand there and watch, helpless in every other way.</p>
<p>Kuroo rises to his knees, then to his feet. He stumbles over to the stone still lying on the ground, picking it up and clutching it in bloodied and reverent hands. “I can’t, Mother.” Kuroo looks at her.  If Kenma’s body was here in this place, he would have fallen to his knees. His and Kuroo’s magic coming back together is overwhelming and consuming. He finds a small comfort in the fact that Kuroo must feel it too.</p>
<p>She looks at him in disgust. “You gave yourself to a human?” she snarls. “This is why you can’t give yourself to me?” Kuroo doesn’t answer, simply breathes slowly, holding tightly to the only thing connecting him to Kenma. The Queen flicks a hand, and Kuroo flies across the room into a wall. “Pathetic.”</p>
<p>She stands then, walks over to his body. She looks down at him. “Since you do not want to be mine, you will not receive my gifts.” Kuroo’s body tightens, his voice letting out pained noises. Kenma feels the magic between them begin to drain slowly away. “You are nothing more than a human, with some decoration.” She looms over him, grasps one horn, and cracks it in two.</p>
<p>She stands and glides back to her throne. “Drop him back on the material plane. If he loves it so much, he can die there. I never want to see him again.”</p>
<p>Kenma watches helplessly as the Queen’s followers lift Kuroo and drag him away.</p>
<p>⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷</p>
<p>Kenma comes back to himself in his tent. Oikawa is sat beside his makeshift scrying circle, arms pulled tightly around his knees. “You’re back.”</p>
<p>“I need a horse.” Kenma stands, begins to race around. “He has to be there.” He grabs every potion and spell component he might need for healing. Even if they didn’t kill him, just threw him to the material plane, Kuroo has been made human, has lost his demonic bloodline… Kenma’s heart drops again. He will need to find him quickly.</p>
<p>“Where?” Oikawa still follows as Kenma hurricanes through the camp. “What’s happening?”</p>
<p>“Kuro.” Kenma runs to the place where their horses are kept. “The first night I found him. It must be a weak point between planes. If he’s left somewhere, if they send him somewhere. It will be there, right?” He looks at Oikawa, desperately needing comfort, needing reassurance, even if it’s all just platitudes.</p>
<p>Oikawa nods at him. “That’s right.” He very obviously still has no clue what is going on. “I’ll tell the others when they come back. We’ll come after you then.” Oikawa helps Kenma onto the horse. “Go. Run.”</p>
<p>Kenma signals his horse into the fastest gallop he can. He needs to remember it, the place they met, the time they met. Rushing water, the river. It feels so long ago now – will he be able to find it? He takes a deep breath and reaches out to Nekomata.</p>
<p>The first step, the first domino falling into place, the first word of their story. The beginning of their connection. He feels a pull in his heart and follows it.</p>
<p>Kenma comes to the place he remembers. He is stopped by the feeling of Nekomata’s hand on his shoulder. Where is Kuroo? He should be here. He hears the rustling of bushes and quickly dismounts from his horse, runs toward the sound, and at that moment Kuroo stumbles from the underbrush.</p>
<p>Months. Kenma has been waiting long, long <em>months</em> to see him again. To feel him again.</p>
<p>Kenma sprints in his direction, reaching him just in time to catch Kuroo as he trips toward Kenma. Kuroo smiles at Kenma, cards a hand through his hair. “Hello, Good Mage.” Kenma falls to his knees, cushioning Kuroo’s body as they land on the ground. Kuroo laughs, and it dissolves into coughing. “Huh, maybe they did kill me.”</p>
<p>“Kuro.” Kenma’s hands fly across Kuroo’s body, healing in places, but mainly just feeling. “Tetsurou.” Kuroo here, Kuroo with him. After months of missing. After thinking he’d lost him. “I’m here. You’re here.” Kuroo brings his hand up to cradle Kenma’s face. Kenma leans into it, holding Kuroo’s hand in both of his.</p>
<p>“Did you know it hurts very much to be banished from a plane?” Kuroo winces in pain. “Especially being banished by an angry demon God who’s disowning you.”</p>
<p>Kenmas’s eyes fill with tears. “You’re here.” He’s repeating himself, babbling through delirious happiness.  </p>
<p>“The ceremony – my ascension. It didn’t happen. The magic wouldn’t allow it.” Kuroo shrugs, a weak but relieved smile on his face. “Turns out you can’t swear uncompromising fealty to a Goddess when you are no longer theirs.”</p>
<p>“Kuro.”</p>
<p>Kuroo forces badly made jokes through his chapped lips. “Even though I’m not a dangerous yet charming demon anymore, will you still let me be yours?” He rapidly blinks away accumulating tears.</p>
<p> “You’re a fool.” Kenma leans down and kisses Kuroo. “You were never charming anyway, and you’re only dangerous if you leave me again and break my heart.”</p>
<p>“I won’t. I promise I won’t.” Kuroo’s hands are moving, touching every bit of Kenma he can reach.</p>
<p>“Then, fine. I suppose it’s only fair.” Kenma loves him, <em>loves him.</em> “Since I’m embarrassingly yours as well.” With Kenma’s hands on Kuroo’s skin, Kenma’s magic healing Kuroo’s body, he can feel the new thrum of Kuroo’s own dampened magic. No longer the feeling of fire and passion he’d grown used to, instead he feels the first break of frost, senses the smell of new soil after a forest fire. It feels like a beginning.</p>
<p>⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷</p>
<p>Kuroo finally gets the chance to bring Kenma to his rooms. They lay on soft red sheets as the sun moves below the horizon, deep orange light dancing into Kuroo’s room through open windows. They’re on their sides, staring at each other. Kuroo will not stop smiling.</p>
<p>“You know, I found a note in here.”</p>
<p>“Where?”</p>
<p>“In this bed, under the pillow.” Kenma still has it folded neatly in his bag, nestled into his prayer book.</p>
<p>“Oh.” Kuroo’s cheeks turn pink and Kenma smiles at him. “I hope it wasn’t embarrassing.”</p>
<p>“It was,” Kenma assures him. “Very sappy and very embarrassing.”</p>
<p>“I hate that that doesn’t even narrow down which one you found.”</p>
<p>“There are more?” Kenma’s eyes fill with delight.</p>
<p>Kuroo sighs, sits up, leaning over toward a bedside table. He waves a hand over the drawer and pulls. The drawer does not move. He waves a second time, and again it does not move. “Um. It was enchanted to only open to my magical signature.”</p>
<p>Kenma snorts, sitting up beside him. “I’m sure we can find someone who can dispel the magic.” Kuroo hits the top of the table with a closed fist. Kenma jumps at the sound. “Or you can break the whole thing.”</p>
<p>Kuroo turns toward him, pouting. “Being locked out of your own table is very annoying.”</p>
<p>“I’m sure.” Kenma laughs at him. “Were there a lot of them?”</p>
<p>Kuroo avoids his eye. “A few.”</p>
<p>Kenma moves, sits in his lap, teases at the nape of his neck with fingertips. “And were they all so sentimental?”</p>
<p>“Some – the ones that were about how I felt for you. Some were about how badly I didn’t want to return.” His hands go to the arch of Kenma’s back, rubbing against the fabric there. “Some were about the filthy things you let me do to you.”</p>
<p>“Read them to me.” Kenma smiles, moves his hips slowly against Kuroo’s thighs. “When we get the drawer open, read them to me.”</p>
<p>“You just enjoy laughing at me.”</p>
<p>Kenma hums. “Maybe.” His movements become more exaggerated, his back arching so nicely in Kuroo’s palms. He brings his lips close to the shell of Kuroo’s ear.  “If you read me love notes, then I’ll let you do every filthy thing you wrote to me again.”</p>
<p>Kuroo groans; he flips them around until Kenma is under him, before moving to once again swing a fist at the wooden top of the table, only this time with much more effort. It splinters, cracks enough for Kuroo to wedge his fingers between and tear the pieces apart. He stands, smiling with the utmost pride, like a dog wanting a treat for doing a trick, his hand full of papers.</p>
<p>Kenma starts to laugh. “I’m surprised your human hands were capable of that.”  </p>
<p>Kuroo jumps on him and kisses him, kisses him. “I had the proper motivation.” There’s laughter in the room, and lightness in Kuroo’s eyes that Kenma’s never seen. It’s new, this carefree joy that Kuroo’s showering him with.</p>
<p>Kenma has always loved games, loved puzzles, loved figuring things out. He thinks he could spend the next hundred years tallying every way to make Kuroo’s face light up. Kenma pulls the papers from Kuroo’s hand, clears his throat.  “Where should we start?”</p>
<p>Kuroo’s eyes sparkle. <em>One</em>.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for reading!!! Kudos &amp; comments are very much appreciated :3</p>
<p>Find me on twitter at @crystalographic!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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